our day

[SKay]

Two incidents today.

First, I told my kids that whatever toys were on the floor when I was ready to vacuum in a few minutes I would put in a bag and they would not be able to play with for several days. DD said, "That's ok Mommy. I have too many toys anyway." She will say anything to get out of cleaning up her room! We'll see how she feels in a few days. But in the event that she truly does not care, I'll have lots of stuff for our next yard sale!! I had more than enough stuff to fill a large (kitchen) garbage bag. DS on the other hand went right to his room and picked everything up off the floor (but put it on top of his toy chests, instead of inside).

The tonight at bedtime DS said that he doesn't want to go to sports camp tomorrow. DS is scared of bugs and a couple of the boys were putting them in his face. He said they got in trouble, but he still doesn't want to go back. He was crying and begging me to pick him up early so they wouldn't do that to him. (Stupid me had made the mistake of saying that I can leave work earlier than I have been. ) DS had told me about the incident earlier, but didn't seem especially bothered. Before bed tonight, DH had let him have a soda (Sprite) . . . high fructose corn syrup . . . hmmm . . . I wonder . . .

[Linda]

I hope your day starts out better today

Ah yes the toys...I remember those days ;D I always figured if the toys were all over the floor they were not important to him I too bagged them up and some I threw away. Interesting though,,,when Paul knew what I was doing his most important toys got put up right away. ;D ;D

Now that he is a teen it is a whole different story Now it is clothes everywhere!!!

The bug incident is mean...I hope your little guy does go back to camp

Dows sprite have caffeine in it?

[camismom]

linda said:

Now that he is a teen it is a whole different story Now it is clothes everywhere!!!

Same here Linda, but I have begun to take a different approach. I leave them there and next time she wants them and fusses that they haven't been washed, I tell her I can't wash it if you don't put it in the dirty clothes. Of course we can't that with the toys so Skay is right on the money with that one! I also like the idea of not giving them back since "she's has too many anyway". That'll make her think next time! hehe

As far as the bug incident... I hope those boys get whats due them.

[kstquilter]

i can't tell you how many toys we've gotten rid of the exact same way! chris never cared! as long as he didn't have to pick them up, he was good! he's still about the same. the kids have to take their laundry downstairs or they don't get washed. we put all of ours in the closet in our bathroom and i'm not wandering all over the house gathering up their junk to wash it for them. they also help with the laundry so i'm not the only one doing it.
i also hope those boys get what's due them. i think the karma thing works out somewhere down the road.
karen

[tridlette]

Michael just leaves the dirty clothes lying around until they smell clean enough to wear again. He doesn't care if they really are.

Patrick can't get safely in or out of his room right now, and it has been too dang hot to go in there... I can't get to the a/c safely to turn it on.

I was hoping that the next door neighbor's house catching on fire Sunday morning would have scared them into cleaning... but so far nothing.

[Linda]

We are having dish network installed right now. The tech goes into Paul's bedroom and says ....where does he sleeep? ;D ;D ;D

[milesofsmiles]

Wow Linda, made me chuckle there. ;D ;D I guess having a messy room is not the worst thing in the world.

When I was younger, my Aunt would pick up everything in my room on the floor and put it in a bag. At any random day, she would dump the bag on the lawn. I would run home every day after school to try to beat any kids that might want something, or in case I left anything embarassing on the floor that week.

Miles

[finnmom]

Oh yes, I can totally relate to this... both toy´s and clothes, I swear I cant understand how my kid´s have turn like this, I HATE MESS I´ve always(yes, as a kid also) been not too tidy but allright.... they just drop thing´s where they stand at and when I tell them to pick them up, it´s all "mooo-ooom why do we have to"

"well, because it would be nice to be able to clean this house every now and then "

AAARRRGGGHHHHH

Skay, I hope those bullies will leave your ds alone, I´d hate if someone would do that to me

[SKay]

Update: This morning I reminded DD that today is " Doll or truck day" at daycare--the one day a week they are allowed to bring their own toys. I forgot that every one of her baby dolls was in the bag. She was NOT a happy camper! I hope she learned her lesson.

For other reasons, I ended up picking up DS early from sports camp, and he got upset with me because they were just about to go swimming. But as we were walking away, one of the boys said, "Hey, A., are you still scared of bugs?" It was not good-natured teasing. DS responded with "Leave me alone." or something like that. I know the boy who said this to him. He is the youngest of 7 kids--has 4 older brothers. I have seen them pick on him so I know he's just looking for someone HE can pick on (and have told DS this). You know, I don't know if this would have been the right thing to do, but I sorta wished I had gone up to the kid and told him that I work with his dad (I do), and I will tell him what he is doing to my son. He can't accuse DS of tattling since he did it right in front of me. On the other hand, since he did it right in front of me, he must not think it's wrong or that adults think it's wrong, so maybe his parents wouldn't care if they found out he was doing it.

Modifying to say I really wouldn't approach the boy or the dad about it; it was just a thought that crossed my mind.

[AnneM]

;D ;D Oh these posts have me in stitches !! ;D ;D

Homing in for a moment though skay on your ds suddenly not wanting to go to camp later on but being happy about it earlier and wondering if the Sprite was the reason .....

This is a very interesting point ... I have OFTEN found with Sam over the years that he hasn't even bothered to MENTION something earlier and then suddenly later it becomes a "BIG DEAL" ... (just as you are describing) ... I don't personally think its the Sprite ... (although I am totally open to disagreement!) ... I think it is simply the way our kids' brains work ...

I had an example of this just today ... Sam works during the holidays and weekends for the Army. He is working for them right now 7 days a week (prior to college starting up on 5th September) ... and it is VERY busy and they are VERY understaffed !! ... Sam is helping to prepare meals for 600 people !! ... It is a huge task ... the Inspector came in last week and said that the kitchen was an inch away from being "closed down" ... and he would come back NEXT week ... and he is due back TOMORROW ... and Sam says they just haven't got the staff to get that kitchen in the pristine condition that is needed to pass the inspection!!

BUT he did not even MENTION this when dh collected him from work earlier ... he was his normal happy self...

However, an hour or two later when I dared to suggest that he should NOT be too late to bed tonight since he has to be up at 5.30 for work tomorrow morning he suddenly started on about how "I have ENOUGH to worry about Mum without you giving me a hard time about the time I go to bed ... " and this seemed to "trigger" him ... The kitchen was BOUND to be closed, he will be WITHOUT a job, he is worried, worried, worried, etc.etc.etc. The management would be BOUND to blame him and a couple of others even though they KNOW they don't have enough staff to pass this inspection ... blah blah blah ...

Anyway my point is that this hadn't been a BIG WORRY earlier at all!! ... in fact looking back a couple of hours it hadn't even occurred to him! ... and I think in all honesty that I "triggered" it because of my comment about "not being too late to bed tonight" ...

Wow !! I am digressing however!! .. Back to your ds ... Oh I hope he has a GOOD day at camp tomorrow !! Keep us posted!!

[SKay]

This weird. On the top line of my last post, I had typed lowercase d after the quotation mark. Why did the cap. D and space appear? This same thing happened on another post, and I couldn't correct it.

Anyway, in reply to other posts:

I have the problem with DD and her clothes, too. I wouldn't be able to stand the smell if I didn't wash her clothes, though. I'll have to see what I can work out. Also, DH and I have an unspoken agreement that I don't wash his clothes unless they are in the hamper. What is really funny about him is that he has clothes all over the closet floor, with the hamper a few inches to the left and the hangers a few inches above! ;D

Linda, Sprite doesn't have caffeine, but high fructose corn syrup can cause behavior problems in some kids (it's not officially off-limits in the Feingold diet, but it is noted so that we can eliminate that from the diet if needed).

Miles, that's funny what your aunt did (although I'm sure it wasn't at the time). I'm afraid I would end up with ants and who knows what other kinds of critters in my house when we brought the toys back in.

Another update: DS just told me that the other boy (not the one mentioned above) got in "big" trouble and appologzied to him and said he wouldn't do it again.

[SKay]

Anne, that is an interesting idea that I'll have to keep in mind. It did occur to me that DS had more time to think about it once he went to bed, and maybe that's why it started bothering him then.

[amcfanny]

skay said:

Two incidents today.

DS is scared of bugs and a couple of the boys were putting them in his face. He said they got in trouble, but he still doesn't want to go back. .

Poor guy. My kiddo is guilty of doing something akin to that - and he paid dearly. We arrived at grandma and grandpas house for our summer visit a few years back and like maybe a half hour later he comes in screaming...his fingers got slammed in the car door by his cousin who is four years older than him. Between fits of crying etc, the whole story comes out. His cousin is terrified of bugs and my kiddo thought it was funny to scare him by chasing him around with a bug. His cousin was trying to get to safety in his car and my kiddo was pushing the bug right in there with him. That's something I've never seen my kiddo do again.

[Amsmom]

oh skay, i feel your pain
ds has waaaaaaaaaaayyyy too many toys, only he would never admit it like your dd (i think that was cute ;D) he is horrible about picking them up and i have taken them away for awhile too. GGGRRRR
sending you hugs for strength!

[SKay]

This is SOOO not working. I reminded DS last night about putting his toys away or my taking them away. Now he says the same thing that DD said--only with a twist. He wants to get rid of his "old" toys so he can get knew ones!