Muh-ha-ha... Mommy has game

[threadwalker]

I'm still awake. yay! And I'm on my game.

The kids are cleaning up a tremendous mess from this weekend. In some sort of frenzied "I better look at every toy I own", the family room has been trashed.

10 minutes ago I nicely said, "Clean up only as much as you want to keep. Mommy will be happy to throw away the rest."

N surveyed, collected some markers, and said he was done.

E said, "Ok, Mommy, you can throw those away. Those are old toys anyway," and went back to coloring.

Hmm.... Okay. I got the glad trash bag out and pitched the princess tea party set. I started to reach for the doll house furniture.

The gasp from N and the shriek from E were gratifying. They are industriously cleaning up. Bwa-ha-ha!... hee hee hee!

I am beside myself in glee. And, yes, the princess tea party set is on it's way out. It's in the bag and is offically getting pitched. This is a lesson that is meant to stick, not a lesson in "and next I will roll over and let you be in charge because what I say holds no authority". They live in my world, I don't live in theirs.

still snickering...

Comments

[dame-cordelia.livejournal.com]

Several years ago I knew a woman who was a tidy soul, but whose sister (when they were both teenagers) would leave her things all over the house. One evening their father said he'd had enough of this clutter and was ignored. So he grabbed a dress that was draped over a living room chair and threw the dress into the fire. It burned nicely, I'm told.

Apparently this method got the sister's attention.