There’s a six year old living inside of me. On good days, she gives me extra doses of curiosity, creativity and wonder, but just like any six year old, when she’s tired she can be extremely cranky and obstinate.
For the past three weeks, my job has been extremely stressful with long hours away from home and my inner six year old is feeling very neglected and is getting very cranky. I’ve managed to keep her under control at work, but at home? Well, quite frankly it looks like a cyclone hit it. My routines have been abandoned and I have been feeling pretty overwhelmed with the thought of getting caught up.
Today, I decided that enough is enough. I left work ON TIME with the intention of getting back on track with my cleaning routines. That started the argument.
Child: I’m tired of doing what I’m told, I want to go play in the craft room!
Me: No, we are going to finish our task list this evening.
Child: It’s too hard! There’s too much to do!
Me: I’ll set a timer for 15 minutes. I bet we can get the dishwasher unloaded and loaded in 15 minutes.
Child: Hmph! Ok. 15 minutes then I’m going to go play!
15 minutes later, the dishes have been put away and the dirty dishes that were on the counter are now in the dishwasher.
Me: I need to start laundry or I won’t have anything to wear tomorrow and there’s a pile of clean laundry that needs to be folded.
Child: (whining) That pile is HUGE it will take all night to get that done!
Me: Let’s see how much we can get done in 30 minutes.
20 minutes later the clothes are all folded.
Child: Yay! Now I can go play!
Me: Not yet! The clothes have to be put away.
Child: (stamps her foot) I HATE putting laundry away!
Me: c’mon, lets see how fast we can get it done. Just think how good you will feel when it’s all put away…
And so the evening goes. I cooked dinner, did the laundry, vacuumed the living room and my office and cleaned the kitchen, all the while arguing and encouraging that inner six year old. The final task was sweeping and mopping the kitchen floor. When I got done…
Child: Yay! Now I can go play!
Me: Wait! Let’s check the calendar to see what’s on the schedule… Oh look, there’s one more thing: it’s blog night. Time to go write a post for that blog you insisted we needed to write.
Child: Noooooo!!!!
So cute! Oh how I can see myself! As an adult, I look around and see the dust, the laundry, the dishes...etc. But I want to go play in my craft room!!!! Just not enough hours in the day...and then I tell myself....Life is too short....and you do have to do something you enjoy once in awhile...smile
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