Another great morning here at Casa Get Out, I ended heading to my treadmill with my headphones on and wishing my children a great day, it felt like the safest place for all of us. You see one of my children is suffering from no clothes to wear, and she seems to think it is my problem, and when I would not jump on board with her thoughts she thought I was being mean. That is when I said to her, "I am not being mean, I am being your Mom, it is called parenting!"
Here is the way it works at Casa Get Out, my children are responsible for their own laundry. However, when my children are overbooked or under pressure, they simply have to ask and I will help them out. My only rule is that if I help them, the laundry must be put away it is not allowed to linger in the laundry basket as if it is a new dresser drawer. This is how items that are still folded end up back in the laundry room and I have NO patience for that.
My daughter is a wonderful person she is kind hearted and generally easy going, but she is also a terrible planner and spends a good deal of each day wishing she had planned better. This daughter is the same one that years ago prompted me to have my children create their own homemade charts of what to remember when they would head off to school. Today I am seriously thinking of starting that program back up!
This is not brain surgery, if you are in jeopardy of having to head to school naked, it is probably time to do laundry. The best part is my daughter washed a very tiny load of clothes last night. This morning, she tells me she has no pants to wear. As I am explaining to this daughter that perhaps a load that included some pants would have been a good idea she says "Why are you being so mean to me? Stop it, stop being so mean!" Seriously? You have not seen mean yet sister!!
The icing on the cake is that as I came into the kitchen after I blew off steam on the treadmill, I found this same daughters lunch sitting on the counter and a text on my phone telling me the lunch had been forgotten, could I put it in the refrigerator. "Already on it" I thought to myself. I am hoping to find a way to gently nudge this child of mine into planning ahead, but it is not looking good right now. I think this situation may require a chart with days and times that laundry should be done, or I can just leave it alone and when she is tired of wearing her summer clothes this winter she will do some laundry.
It's called parenting, but some days it feels more like one of those survival shows they put on television. I have no book to refer to on this, but I am pretty sure that being "mean" as a parent is actually a form of tough love. That being said, this morning my tough love was not a big hit. Wait until later today when my love gets a little tougher and I have her do more laundry and make a list of things she needs to remember to do. Mom is my name and parenting is my game.
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