Enough is Enough

Enough is Enough!

I quietly walked into my two younger girls' room, to kiss them goodnight. I managed to make it in the door, past the closet, when it happened....

My feet got tangled up in the mound of dirty clothes and I did that crazy dance, to try to keep myself from falling over. I grabbed at the closest thing I could, which happened to be a hanger, that was attached to another, then attached to another, that was hanging from the closet rod.

SNAP!!!

The hanger broke and I landed in a pile of Lego’s...Actually think it WAS a castle, that was now crumbled beneath me!

As I steadied myself, I looked around my children's bedroom and realized I have lost all control. For WEEKS I had been telling my girls to clean their room. I'd threaten them with “CLEAN YOUR ROOM OR I'LL THROW EVERYTHING AWAY!”

But they knew that I would never do that.

The next morning...I laid it out. I gave the girls a time limit. “Two hours to get your room clean. If it is not clean, I will go in and bag up the remaining stuff.” They said they understood...and went to work.

An hour went by and I checked on their progress. The girls were making none. Arguing and complaining. I reminded them of what would happen if the job was not done.

(My girls are 10 and 5 and have been shown HOW to clean and put away...they were perfectly capable)

After the two-hour time limit expired....I opened the door to the bedroom, and saw that nothing had been done, from the last check-in point.

I knew that follow-through HAD to happen!

I went into the room with two kitchen sized trash bags and began to put in everything that was on the floor. The contents FILLED both bags. My girls were crying and very upset. To them...life was over.

The TV and computer were probably the most traumatic losses.

“What are we going to do now....?” my girls cried.

My hubby and I held our ground.

When bedtime came around, we sent the girls to their room SURE that there would be some kind of trauma from not having cartoons to watch....But instead....Laughter and excitement came from the emptied room.

“This can't be good...” I said to my hubby

I went down to check on what was happening and found my girls playing this game.....My 10 yr old was holding a drawing she made, of a Wii remote...While my 5 yr old was standing being a cut out frame they had made....

“We're playing the Wii Mommy!”   Brooklyn is pretending to be the game, and I'm controlling her...I laughed with them and told them how creative they were.  An hour ago, life was over....And now....They had come up with a creative way to solve their problem.

That's what I love about my kids. Despite all the complications of NF and life with six kids and yada, yada, yada - they remind me to step back, accept the situation, and find a creative way to handle it. To Thrive.

Thrive On.

(The girls have been slowly earning back their toys, as long as the room stays clean...And I have been impressed...No stumbling, fumbling, or falling has happened to me since)