Saturday, December 13, 2008

I have a good excuse!

Ok it has been brought to my attention that I am slacking in the posting department and yes I am, but I have a good excuse. I have been without internet for the last few weeks. I have been able to check and send email at work, but that is it. We switched providers and there was a little snaffoo in the process. But I am back up and running now so on with the posts.

That being said I am dedicating this post to a plea for help! I am a realistic person. I know that I have four boys ages 8 and under and I work 30 hours a week, so my house will NEVER be immaculate. BUT is it too much to ask for these beings to clean up after themselves? I am working so hard to keep my house picked up and festive for the holidays. Yet everyday I come home from work my house looks like a backpack bomb exploded! (Don't get me started on the fact I have a standing "no opening back packs until mom gets home rule.) Being the realistic person I am, I also understand that I must pick my battles. My chosen battle is too keep bedrooms picked up. I am losing this battle. I am trying to teach the boys simple talents to make life easier. Their rooms will look like confined disaster areas on any given day, and there are tears, and whining and crying, and more tears when asked to clean it. The older boys are much worse than the younger at these fits. Now don't get me wrong, I have fantastic kids, who for the most part mind really well and are very respectful, but they realy are slobs. If anyone has any suggestions or ideas I am open for this. Very soon our schedules will be changing and I won't have my Enforcer around as much as I do now, and I am going to need all the help I can get.

I promise my next post will be festive and merry and full of good cheer. Just needed to get this off my chest. (Deep sigh) I feel much better, so I am going to go hug my little pigs and tuck them into their messy rooms....(Actually they are clean right now cause I was mean and made them stay in them till they were done.) :)

5 comments:

jen said...

All I can say is I understand!!! Glad to hear you are on the net again...we missed you!

Jen

Kristi said...

I tell my kids that they can keep the things they put away, otherwise everything that is left out will get thrown away. I tell them it will get thrown away or given to another little boy who will take care of the toys or clothes - of course I just keep the item until they "earn" it back.
I have taken half of the kids toys before. It wasn't until they saw that I was serious and I would take them that they learned to obey. A couple of times a day you will here me say, "in five minutes I am coming into your room to collect my toys." The kids start scrambling.
I own them :) I am so tough.

megs said...

I have a co-worker with two girls (ages 7 and 9) who he says used to be notorious slobs. Recently he started this: if they say they've cleaned their roooms, he picks up a trash bag and goes to their rooms, putting anything that is still on the floor in the bag. They immediately run in front of him to get everything put away. That might not be feasible with four kids, but it's an idea...

I'll e-mail you what we do with Kyle. It's a bit more complicated than that...

jen said...

Hey Cindy, let me know the dates for spring break for you guys, if I remember right I think that Utah has a later break, so we may have to work around school but I am more than willing ;]

Amanda said...

This is what I started doing a few months ago. Whenever I see that my girls have left toys on the floor, or whatever they take out and don't put back, I put it in a trash bag. Then I either throw it away, give it to Goodwill, or put it up for a long time.

Try that. It works for me.