First, I asked DH to wrap DS's presents last night. Today is his 5th bday. He said he would. But, when dh came to bed at 3am (he played on the computer much of the night) I asked him if he had wrapped them and he said he didn't know where they were. I had told him where they were! What was the problem? So, he says he will wrap them first thing in the morning. I am tired, pregnant, and have a kidney infection. I just cannot keep up with life in general right now. Plus, it is impossible to fall asleep almost. My patience level has dwindled due to everything going on. SO...dh goes to wrap the presents this morning, but cannot find the main present. He wakes me up and I said..are you sure it is not right next to your computer desk? He says he didn't see it. So I get up and walk all the way downstairs, see it right by his chair, pick it up and hand it to him. Now I cannot get back to sleep. I try to lay back down, not working. I decide to tackle my work for the day. I call to order some tests I need for the children. I have to fill out a standard form that I do every year with these tests. They email it to me. I ask them if they could please mail it to me instead as my printer is not communicating. They say no, they have to email it. They ask me to get it back to them ASAP. Of course, my computer is saying the printer is not installed. I look at my list of things needing to be printed. But the worst part is...ALL the paper, on the floor and everything..that I can see sitting around, from a 14 yr old who never ever picks up after himself and has been printing. Which brings up to the likely reason things are not printing..someone must have done something to the settings. Something! So I get my big ole self and tummy down to the ground to crawl around and pick up all these papers. There is a lot of card stock on the ground. At this point I am thinking..I never buy anything for myself as I am frugal, yet my son is using tons of card stock to make mistakes on for some public school project that makes no sense? And then he drops it to the floor and never cleans up after himself? He is 14 yrs old!!! His bedroom is so messy. He is very impulsive and will cut little peices of things up and drop them to the floor and he drives me nuts. He always has some project going and leaves things in his room. We could not find a single screw driver today. OK...so..in addition to all that, I have set my a/c to 72 degrees and still feel like I am burning up. No fever..just pregnancy hot flashes. This goes well with the cold flashes I get on occassion. Would I be cruel to go through his room, as well as a few other rooms, and gather up what the kids won't pick up and throw it away or haul stuff to charity?
When our best friends used to get fed up with their 3 kids having junk everywhere, they would get a box and fill it up with all the stuff and then put it out on the front lawn for the kids to see when they got home from school. They would tell the kids it was going out with the trash if not put away immediately. They would do this every so often when things got out of hand and it worked wonders for keeping the house clean.
<hugs> I think that some people - see I'm not making sex-oriented remarks - are braindead and have trouble processing things. Everything you have said reminds me of my husband. If I could give you any advice, I would, but I just have real-life experiments involving banging my head against the wall. I *like* this idea. I can do that. Thanks!
((((BIGG HUGG!)))) With regard to the little pieces of paper and card stock on the floor. Put it in your ds' bed!
Make your 14 yr old clean it up ((HUGS)) How about making him clean up not just the paper mess, but the whole house (vacuuming, dusting, etc.) Make it a lot of work, maybe he'll think twice about messing it up again. Then again, I'm a mean mommy sometimes. (My middle one is a slob. I keep working with her. I'm not sure where she gets this from, but I lose it with her occasionally.):wink: My neighbor actually went into her daughter's room when they were sleeping and picked up everything laying around that they haven't picked up and put away (after asking them repeatedly to do so). She made a pile for each daughter (money, fingernail polish, horse tote bag <her daughter just had to sell her horse for financial reasons-so this one was especially hard for mom to do>, etc.) showed them what they lost and hauled it to the salvation army. She said it was hard, but she was determined to not feel bad because she had asked them repeatedly to clean up. They've been great at getting their chores done ever since. All she had to do was threaten her boys after she did it with the girls and they straightened up. I know that's hard to do especially with all the pregnancy and health stuff you have going on right now. They way you are feeling will be temporary. My hubby acts the same way some times. You're not alone. I mention it to him and pray about it, but that's all I can do. I'm not sure if that was much help. Hang in there! Patty
Growing up I sometimes didn't feel like picking up my room. Well my mother had a great solution for that, I'd come home from school (now I know we homeschool but you get the idea) to find a GIANT pile in the middle of my floor. Anything that was mine and wasn't put in it's proper place was in that pile and the rule was I couldn't leave my bedroom for anything but the bathroom (and maybe dinner) until the entire pile was put away. I got the picture pretty quick, and cleaned the room. Then the next day my mother would check thoroughly to be sure I put things away and if I hadn't well then that day held another day of clearing a pile. She would leave trash bags in my room for me if I had trash, and she would leave me a box for anything I didn't want anymore. Everything else had to be put in it's place before anything fun could be done.
nope not at all. I did it once although I didnt give it away I locked it in the garage until they earned their stuff back. (((hugs)))
This is what we did when thhey were younger too, it was gone in garage for at least a month! Bythen they decided if they really wanted it or it went to charity. I am ready to do this again but I have apile out there rightnow to curb with put for sale or free sign on !
it is a good way to weed through stuff. After they earned the things that they valued they pretty much forgot about the rest int he garage and that is when I donated the rest.
Dude- I'll say it! Men act like they just landed in a foreign country sometimes! I'd like just a dime for everytime my husband didn't see something right in front of him. I'd like another dime for everytime I had to go find something for him that was exactly where I said it would be. It's all passive aggressive b.s. This happened on Jon & Kate Plus 8, and she actually said 'Now, am I going to come and find it right there?' Sh had told him to get something for one of the kids, and he played like he couldn't find it. When he said he couldn't find it, she suggested that as soon as she came on the scene, the item would be right there in front of him.
