Monday, February 9, 2009

The Shoe is On The Other Foot!

I don't know if I have mentioned often enough how much I appreciate my mom. I must admit that she gets smarter and smarter as I get older. And I KNOW I haven't mentioned enough how much I appreciate my mom (are you reading today, Mom?)

Yesterday, I went into my girls' room and just dumped all the stuff they had lying around into a big pile in the middle of the room. Mom would do that when we were kids. I'd walk into my room to find everything that had been lying around the house and my room all dumped into one big pile. And it drove me crazy!! You know, why couldn't she have just asked?

Now I know the truth. She did ask. She begged. She told, and she demanded. And I ignored. I made excuses. I told her I had cleaned my room when she could plainly see socks, sweaters, little bits of paper, tissues, toys all over the place. Sorry, Mom!

The only thing worse than finding the pile of junk was when I would come home to a perfectly clean room A MOM-clean room. Everything put away. Which meant she had been in there with......the garbage bag.....

And yes, I admit, I do this too. And my kids hate it. But they don't hate it enough to pick up after themselves. Sorry, Mom!

I wonder if my sister and I fought enough while cleaning our room, that we ended up grounded for 3 days??

7 comments:

Andrea said...

The boys hate when I clean their room with a garbage bag. I have 2 pack rats that keep every little paper!

Dawn said...

Oh yeah BTDT!! I used to give them one last warning, I'd hang a garbage bad on the door handle for 24 hours if the room wasn't clean by then they KNEW it would be full the next time they saw that bag. Sometimes it worked sometimes it didn't but in the end the room was always cleaner.

I have to be careful now though, EmmaLi sleeps in our room (bed and all) so if my room gets "daddy cleaned" I'M the one in trouble. LOL....hmm maybe I should at least put the clothes away that are piled up on top of my dresser.

Mommakitten said...

I plan on using the garbage bag here in the next few days on Adam's room... he is so not going to like it... But as you said after the pleading and the begging... you are just DONE!

lamamachina said...

Your post is very timely.
This weekend I had a spaz attack, grabbed a garbage bag and did just that.

There were lots of tears and rummaging thru the garbage can by the girls but I think I did get my point across.

I have to admit I felt very guilty afterwards. I also felt sick that all the things I was dumping were things that I'd bought for them with my hard earned money.

But like you, since my pleading went on deaf I had to take drastic measures.

Being a mom is a tough job.

Tracy said...

My dad was notorious for this ....except he didn't just pile all the stuff left out in the middle of the room...he dumped the drawers, the closet and the sheets off the bed in the middle of the room....and when we came home from school we knew it had to all be put away by dinner.....I thought it was a "Navy thing" guess it is just a parent thing!!

erin richardson said...

Poor Caleb. His mommy is learning all sorts of things from her friends. :-)

a Tonggu Momma said...

I totally do this!!! And I learned it from my momma. LOL.