Day 180 The Perfect Mom Project

I think I am in the invisible portion of my mothering life. It seems lately that all my requests and comments are falling on deaf ears. I ask the girls to do things and they conveniently forget, or they put things that I have asked them to do off so long that I forget. I am so frustrated. Is it too much to ask that when they do laundry that they actually finish it? Maybe fold it and take it to their room and even put it away? That's when they do laundry. I do help them out with their laundry here and there, but I have had a rule since Ashleigh was home that once you are in middle school, you do your own laundry. It just gets me going when they do not finish it and then it interferes with what I need to get done that day.

I am feeling like I need to unplug the computer and the TV. Avery gets home from school and begins the rotation between being on the computer, watching TV and playing Wii. She will stop long enough to do homework and then she is back at the computer, TV and Wii rotation. I know this is all normal, but it still bugs me.

I love how when they have a task to complete my girls act like it is so unfair. Yesterday I picked Avery up at school and dropped her off at home so that she could have a quick snack and brush her teeth. Then I drove up to the high school and picked up Aly and dropped her off at home, and picked up Avery and took her to the orthodontist. I should have made some comment about how unfair it was, maybe even added in something like "Why do I have to do all the driving and picking up, it's not fair!" Maybe by now you have figured out that it is not a good day in my mothering kingdom. I just feel like we are caught in this phase and I cannot get us out. I want my kids to hear me when I speak; I want them to say how high when I say jump and I just want to feel like I matter somehow.

Maybe that is the issue; I just do not feel like I matter. I think it is just expected that I will do all the things that I do around here and I am just taken for granted. I am really not trying to have a pity party for myself. I guess I just climbed to the end of my rope and now I am dangling there. I am not sure how to fix this without being a nag to my kids. I sincerely just want them to get it that I am not the hired help and that what I do here is out of love for my family and a little appreciation would be nice. I am going to have to take all my frustration out on my house today, because it needs to be cleaned. I also have to make a birthday cake for my Son-In-law, so I do not have time to dink around with self pity. It's just another day in the life of a perfect mother want-a-be. Obviously I still have a lot of work to do!