Today was IT! The LAST STRAW! I was DONE...WELL done...on the verge of burned to a crisp with trying to get my kids to PICK UP THEIR TOYS! I had HAD IT! Get my point? I HATE TOYS!
So with all the poking, prodding, nagging, begging and pleading that I've been doing, I gave my kids ONE LAST CHANCE to get their toys put away. At 10:30am they marched up to the room to start. I was going to give them ONE HOUR to get it clean, and then I would be joining them in their room with a....GARBAGE BAG!!
So as the hour progressed, I could hear them moving around...every once in a while I would call out to them,"Hey! How's it going in there?" which was responded with an enthusiastic,"GREAT!". I thought, this is great...the THREAT of putting their toys in the garbage was enough to get them to clean their room! I was quite pleased with myself!
Then it happened...at 11:30am I started marching up the stairs...garbage bag in hand (just in case) but hopeful that the job had been well done. When Hannah heard me coming up the stairs, she tore out of the room to stop me at the top of the stairs and said,"NO NO NO! We're ALMOST done!" But I didn't buy it.
I walked around the panicked 7 year old and made my way into the HORROR!!! I don't think they had even picked up a single toy! So, I calmly got on the ground and started picking things up one by one and putting them in the garbage bag. My DH Jared even got in on the fun, and started getting the girls to pick up stuff as fast as they could, because only the stuff that was still on the floor was going to end up in the garbage bag. Well let me tell you...by their reaction you would've sworn that they were bleeding from their eyes. The "weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth" doesn't even suffice.
Poor Abigail, she was so distraught...but life lessons must be learned, and keeping a tidy room is one of them. I am the mother of 5 children and CANNOT have a brood of lazy bums...sorry if anyone disagrees, but it's the way it goes in a large family.
So as I was putting toys in the garbage bag, the girls were desperately scrambling to grab their most prized possessions...their stuffies. Abbi had her arms overflowing with things, and when she saw that I was reaching for Lily's pink piggie on the floor (Lily's most favorite toy) she threw everything in her arms aside, screamed "NOOOOOOO!" and DOVE for the little pink pig. I mean, she literally DOVE....on her belly, sliding across the floor with a look of such desperation on her face, you would've thought that she was diving for an oasis in a desert after days of nothing to drink...THAT kind of desperation...and it was like it was happening in slow motion. What a good sister...but she didn't get there in time! It made it's way to the garbage bag, and at this point everyone was melting down.
Now I don't get pleasure out of my children's sorrows, in fact, I consider myself to be rather compassionate...but today enough was enough. Actually...the devil in me was laughing so hard that tears were streaming down my face...just because I was NOT expecting the dramatics that this little lesson received.
So now the toys are in a garbage bag, that is sitting tied up in my room...and each and EVERY toy will have to be earned back...I HATE TOYS...and thems the breaks kid!
