Categories: uncategorized
Date: 14 November 2004 17:04:29
They're tidying their bedroom. A month ago, in desperation, I put up a sticker chart and promised a financial reward when it was full of stickers. I was going to put a row of stickers up once it was initially tidy, and then a sticker a night for a) putting their clothes tidy and b) putting their toys tidy and c) putting their beds tidy. They still have no stickers.
M tried to help. She offered them a pound each when their bedroom was initially tidy, and then 25p a week for each week it stayed tidy, 10p taken out of the box each time it was not. They are seriously in debt.
I added sanctions. No bedtime stories, no tucking into bed until I could walk safely across the floor to get to their beds. The threat, once again, of everything left on the floor going in the bin. (They've already lost about ten, yes ten, binbags full of toys over the last three years since Smudgelet joined us!) The impact? None whatsoever.
This weekend I grounded them. No playing, no going out, no Scouts, no Beavers, no trip to see The Incredibles at the cinema, no TV or video. Nothing. Not until the bedroom was tidy. They have worked on it all weekend, amid arguments and quarrelling and bossing each other about and having strops and getting told off for playing instead of working and deciding that I don't love them at all.
Finally. 4pm today. It's tidy. The floor is clear. The room is pristine. Mummy is happy. She reminds the boys of one final job. In their room is a huge cardboard box where I am starting to accumulate things from my slow-but-sure decluttering with the prospect of a car boot sale next spring. (If my bedroom has to be full of "spare-room" stuff, I don't see why they shouldn't have one box) I remind them that this is not a repository for their things, because last time I looked I had seen half a dozen items of dirty clothing in there, and suggest that they check they've taken those clothes out and put them in the washbasket.
You've guessed it. All the junk from the floor, they'd relocated in my big box and hidden it out of sight. It was packed to overflowing with all the things they couldn't be bothered to put away in their toy cupboard, bookshelf and under-bed storage!
Bet you can't guess what they did next, though. I know, you think they began to take the things out one by one and put them away tidily, don't you? That's what I expected too - well, to be honest, I expected them to have a tantrum over it first. But no, they calmly went into the bedroom and tipped the box up, spreading the contents all over the floor to sort !!!!!!!!!! You can't get from the door to the bed. There isn't a spare footspace even if you were to leap from island-of-carpet to island-of-carpet.
AAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
"Mummy, you don't love us, do you? If you loved us, you wouldn't get cross with us".