Went downstairs with the surgical tape on my mouth this morning -- more as a demonstration to the kids that I was NOT going to be reminding them about things today. They laughed and asked me about it. They wasted no time in reporting to me that they had everything done (breakfast and lunch). I noticed only one bowl -- so I think that means only one of them ate cereal. The bowl and spoon are still sitting on the counter now. M asked if I was going to wear the tape out to the bus stop. I said I would if he wanted me too. Guess 7.5 is when your parents could start to embarrass and he asked me not to. I heard them both watching the clock closely -- M in particulary, announcing the time periodically. No problem getting out in plenty of time this morning. They did leave 6 pillows and various other toys in the middle of the kitchen floor. I had to step over them all day -- bugged me! I didn't think I did that much for them -- but this is a clear example of something that I probably would've at least pushed out of my way. I resisted so well all day, but when dinner came I had to step over them every time to the table. I couldn't help it -- I was going crazy -- so as I stepped over them with food stuff in my hands I said "Geez, I hope I don't spill anything on these pillows. It would ruin them and then some one would have to buy new ones and that won't be me." Really, my resolve gets tested on the 1st day with pillows in the kitchen? K did jump up and moved them immediately. Not sure how I could deal w/that all week long. They aren't all quite put away -- but I'm ok w/that.
M came right in after school and did his homework and unloaded his backpack. I looked at his homework and asked him to tell me about it. It was math and he tends to write pretty sloppy. I know his teacher would be mentioning that he needs to write more clearly in one section (it truly was NOT intelligible). I mentioned that I had a hard time understanding what he had written -- and that it might just be me -- and maybe Mrs. J will be able to understand it. It was an improvement over my normal 'help' with his homework -- I'm generally more directive. Not sure I hit the mark though -- especially not for DNSN week. But at least I'm trying something different than what I have done previously.
M had Cub Scouts tonight that T (Dad) takes him too. They were doing something sloppy and T called on his way home to remind M to change into sloppy clothes. Ugh. Reminder. Then T got home and reminded again - "are you really going to wear that to paint in?". At least T let him pick out the clothes -- which were not really sloppy -- but T let it slide.
I cleaned up T and my dishes and dinner pans and leftovers. M got his dishes to the counter, to keep the breakfast bowl company. K's dish and cup (still half full) remains on the table keeping the kids' school papers company. Oh, which reminds me, when I sat down to eat I pushed their papers over towards them so I could have a space to eat and M started to push them back towards me. I told him I needed a place to eat. I think I may have also slipped in a comment about hoping the papers don't get food on them. K helped to push the papers back to make room for me again. I had a tremendous urge at one point to purposefully spill water on them, but realized that passive aggressiveness would get none of us anywhere. Just breathe and ignore. Papers all still there.
K and I just hung out. I made cookies. I asked her what she wanted to do -- she said she wanted to watch tv. After awhile I asked again - but she said she just wanted to watch tv.
M came home and T asked what he wanted to do and he said he wanted to do his reading (part of his homework is to read at least 20 min every night). No prompting from T -- yeah for both of them! K really wanted me to read Harry Potter to them once M was done -- but we ran out of time -- we have a 8:20 cut off for all reading. I purposefully did not mention anything about it being bedtime -- I just said we were out of time for reading. Kids put themselves to bed. So far, so good on NOT recognizing that they could push the limits here and stay up.
Not bad for the 1st day. Need to get more tolerant of the 'hot' areas for me -- kitchen, particularly kitchen floor and table. I'll try hard not to move anything or mention the concern about items tomorrow. Maybe I'll just imagine those papers as a artful new tablecloth? Gotta reframe it somehow for myself -- before the week is out it is sure to be several layers deep.
I'm sure I'm going to wish I didn't work from home this week. I'm might need to temporarily take refuge and relocate my work space to our bedroom.
It sounds like the kids have come a long way w/ morning routine since the last DNSN!
ReplyDeleteThe mess is definitely one of the hardest things for me to deal with, too. I tended to remove myself to my bedroom a lot because looking at it stressed me out. Just repeat to yourself "it's only 1 week, it's only 1 week..." :) I think you would be completely justified in declaring a "safe zone" for yourself where you explain to the kids that you need a clean space to work in and anything left in that zone gets tossed back out of the "zone" for them to deal with. There's a difference between picking up after them and relocating the mess so that you can operate.
All those papers left out are a great opportunity for training on organization once DNSN is over! Put it on the timeline!