To my darling children,

I admit it!  I’ve created you all and I created monsters!  Spoiled is what I’ll call you ~ all!  As much as I love you, I’ve done you a huge disservice and enabled you to become the spoiled creatures you’ve become.  Last year I wrote a blog about you called “They Don’t Know How Good They Have It” (http://www.jennicombs.com/2011/02/they-dont-know-how-good-they-have-it.html).  Today I’m going to take this idea even farther….

You, my little darlings, are spoiled.  You are not mean or nasty ~ think Nellie Olson from “Little House on the Prairie” (Ah Crap!  You don’t even know who she is) but you are spoiled just the same. 

Today is the day your little worlds are going to get a little topsy-turvy.  This morning I told all of you I needed your sheets so I could wash them before the cleaning people arrive (I know I’m spoiled too!).  Claire was the only one to comply.  She sent her sheets careening over the bannister and onto the floor below.   Since you boys failed to do your assigned tasks, I needed to do it for you…again. I cruised into Lucas’ room first and I am greeted by a sight that stuns my eyes…Lucas, your whole floor is littered with dirty clothes.  Your bathroom floor is littered with dirty clothes.  Your sink is a science experiment gone awry, with toothpaste spatter all over the inside and around the rim.  Today I did what I should have done months or even years ago.  I closed the door to your room, your bathroom and Zach’s room.  I will tell the cleaning people to skip your rooms and you will now have to clean your rooms, remake your beds with the sheets I took off and washed and Lucas, you will have to clean your own bathroom.  Seriously ~ It’s a damn science experiement!  Zach ~ your bathroom is clean and neat, as is your room but you failed to do the one thing I asked you to do…strip your bed. Your worlds need to be rocked just a little!

I have enabled you to get this bad.  I have been lazy in my parenting.  I don’t check your rooms or  bathrooms that often.  You get away with bloody murder in the house because I go around after you if the job is not done to my satisfaction and clean it myself.  Don’t get me wrong, my room is not always perfectly neat and tidy but it’s  not littered with clothes, cups, empty water bottles, etc…I don’t leave gobs of spit-out toothpaste in my sink.  My towels are hung up to dry.  I get my clothes in the laundry hamper.  It’s time you all took a little responsibility for yourselves and your things.  My enabling days are over.

Today, you will have clean your own rooms!  “GASP ~ NO, SAY IT ISN’T SO!” Is what I imagine I hear you all saying.  Well, guess what ~ the gravy train has left the station and it’s not coming back.  I am your enabler no more.

With Love,
Mom

Soooooo, as you all can see, I’m a little grumpy with my children right now.  I was on the verge of grumpy this morning when Zach asked if his socks were clean.  
“Were they in your hamper on laundry day,” I asked. 
“No, but I put them in the washing machine,” was the reply. 
“Hmmmm…the washing machine?  On laundry day?” I probe a little further…
“No, yesterday,” was the lame response. 
Yesterday was not laundry day.  Not sure how he thinks the socks are gonna get washed if they’re not there on laundry day.  Is the damn laundry fairy gonna come down and magically wash them??  OH wait!  I’m the damn laundry fairy…I grant all manner of laundry wishes.  Want clean clothes?  POOF, they’re clean!  Want folded clothes?  POOF, they’re folded!  (I draw the line at putting them in rooms or putting them away…which is why Lucas’ are all over the damn floor!)  Well, as of this minute I’m firing the damn laundry fairy…or at least paying her less…oh, wait!  She’s not paid for that!

The straw was fractured after my conversation with Zach but it was shattered this morning when I saw the condition of Lucas’ room and bathroom.

My enabling days are over…I think.  I hope I can be strong.  Spineless and lazy no more!  That’s my new motto for 2012!  Welcome to it!!  Enabling BE GONE…for the love of my children!