I finally convinced the children that there rooms had to be completely cleaned, picked up, trash thrown away, and drawers cleaned out of clothes they hadn't seen or been able to wear in years. Well, it helped to convince them by adding that all electronics would be taken from the house until it's done--
I arrived home from work and was greeted at the door by William. "Come see my room--you're going to be so proud of me and so happy." While I desperately needed to go to the bathroom and perhaps fix a VT, I also knew that I needed to reinforce this enthusiasm, so I crossed my legs and headed up the stairs. "Doesn't it look great?" he excitedly asked. Great is not exactly the word I would have used, but I decided to change my perspective. Compared to the way it had looked when I left this morning "great" could be used if you added "improvement" to the phrase. I gulped and just said "yes, I hope you keep it this way." really thinking about the potty (they hate when I use that word) and that VT. As I turned around to leave William responded, "I will I'm going to keep it this clean by never coming in here." It's all about perspective--
I went to the potty (love they can't stop me from using that word--really it's the little passive aggressive things in life that make me so happy) and decided to change before heading back downstairs. As I was changing my door burst--literally--open and there stood Caroline. "Grouse--put on clothes." This is a common statement the children make when they come into MY room--I didn't respond--it's all about perspective--
"Guess what?" she barely got out through her excitement. It did cross my mind that perhaps I shouldn't ask what; I hadn't had that VT and with Caroline you never know what's going to follow the guess what, but I succumbed to the eagerness in her voice or maybe I was hypnotized into insanity for a moment. Regardless, I answered, "What?" "I found over seven dollars in change cleaning up my room. This is awesome! Thank you for making me clean up my room." I almost did an obsessive compulsive mama happy dance--I had found the answer to her keeping her room clean. I lept on her comment like a cheetah after it's prey--"Well, if you kept your room clean you wouldn't have lost the money to begin with." If you google it you will find that cheetahs are the fastest mammals and typically they don't have predators--they've never met Caroline--a predator of cleanliness and faster than a cheetah...
"But finding money is fun! And if I keep my room clean I won't get to do this again. I know you're going to say well clean it every few days and you can find money, but that won't work either because there won't e MUCH money. Finding a lot of money is what makes it fun. I'll have to wait awhile to clean it again."
I didn't even finish dressing--downstairs for that VT--it's all about perspective.
