It is close to 8:30.
I have just finished cleaning the kitchen.
Homework is done.
The kids are upstairs.
All is QUIET on the domestic front.
I tell you this not to gloat, not to make you feel bad, but to tell you that THIS IS NOT NORMAL.
Normal by this time of night is my dogs barking, my son crying, and the tv blaring.
Normal by this time of night is my ears ringing, my chest tightening, and my throat stinging from screaming above it all.
No, this night is not normal. Not normal at all.
My son did his homework without a fight.
No sibling snark was passed with the salt.
No loud gas passed with the dessert.
We laughed. We talked.
My daughter helped prepare tomorrow's lunch.
My son helped clean the kitchen.
Did you get that?
MY SON HELPED CLEAN THE KITCHEN!
I'm not talking a lame wipe of a greasy counter or a drying of a single dish.
Oh no, I'm talking he
SCRUBBED PANS, SPRAYED COUNTERS, CLEANED THE STOVE TOP, DRIED DISHES
He wanted to do it.
I'm still grinning from ear to ear.
I think I might have even climaxed a little (maternally speaking, of course).
Okay, okay, so, yeah, he did it for a few bucks.
He's saving up for a P.S.P.
I never said the kid was a saint. Jeez.
But who cares?
I gotz me a helper in the kitchen. Yay!
And if it costs me a few bucks, so what?
I gotz me a helper in the kitchen! Yay!
There I go climaxing again.
Forgive me. I think many of you will understand...
But here's the best part.
The reason the earth-moved for me tonight (purely maternally speaking, get your minds out of the gutter people)... is that last night my son's attitude was so bad I took away his Wii and TV privileges for three days.
So you'd think I'd be smart enough to deduce... hey,
no tv + no wii = nice son
Right?
Wrong.
Because I may be smart enough... but that doesn't mean I'm strong enough.
I don't have the stamina to withstand the screaming and crying I will have to endure if I take away the tv and Wii on a permanent basis.
Soooo.
No matter how much better life is without it.
No matter how desperate I am for peace, and quiet, and satisfaction. (the parenting kind...gutter...people!)
I've got only one more day and then it's back to normal.
Maybe he'll get in trouble again.
One can only hope.
*photo courtesy of Google Images
2 Comments:
We took away the Wii during the week because HRH was *out of control* with it. He only asks for it about every 10 minutes now...
Good for you for bribing your child into helping! I'd take that all day long!
You did just right. Taking it away forever would not have worked. When my children were younger they often used to get quite worked up and angry over the Nintendo. So I would remove the controllers, sometimes for days, until they were better behaved.
My older son learned a lot of patience -- and grew up to be a games progammer at Microsoft.
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