Heroes, I just lost my temper with the boys. In a big way.
I’m sure I’ll regret this tomorrow, but right now I’m still angry.
There comes a time for every parent when the endless ignored requests just get to be too much. Boys in this case have not been making an adequate effort to clean up after themselves, and I’m just…done. I asked for help with dishes tonight. One boy worked on it for a while, then left. I even forwarded the request on to the others (translation: I repeated myself. Nicely.) and expected that when I next went to the kitchen I would find a) the dishwasher running and b) no dirty dishes sitting out.
That was a bad expectation. I was very disappointed because I have been the one keeping up with dishes for some time now, and expecting some help wasn’t an unreasonable thing. I cleared up the kitchen, took care of the trash and the food items that were out and started the dishwasher running.
When I went downstairs to see who was still playing on the computer after they’d been requested to shut down and go to bed I was more than a little unhappy to find two machines still running. One had a boy sitting in front of it.
And there were dishes everywhere.
That was when I began to rant about my frustrations, and when that particular boy protested that he shouldn’t take all of the lecturing I agreed. So I went and rousted the rest of them out of bed, shared my very angry opinions of the situation and insisted they clean. up. NOW.
This is just another round of a cycle we seem to play out a lot. I’ve gone a long time without losing my mind about the dishes, so I guess I have to start over again on that one. And I admit that frustrations with some other situations in life are definitely in play. But I still believe that children should be at least minimally helpful around the house, especially when they are 12 and 17 years old – fully capable of a lot more than they’re doing.
So yep. I’m pretty angry. Hubby and I provide them with a pretty darn good life, and it’s more than reasonable to expect that they can throw out their trash, put away food they’ve gotten out, and clean up their dishes.
Heck, I’m going to go out on a limb and claim that they should clean up after themselves all the time.
I’m living dangerously here.
Annnnnyway. I’m going to sulk and brood for a while. In the meantime, check out the awesome contests in the linky, and do enjoy them.
If you win something, that’d cheer me up.