Some days I’ve got a shorter parenting fuse than others. Last week was one of those times. I went into my daughter’s closet to find a particular item, and I was knocked over by an avalanche of clothing and toys and random crap that she had stuffed in there.
I threw my angry face in her direction and snapped, “WHAT. IS. THAT?! You were supposed to clean your room this weekend.”
I pointed at the carnage and waited for a response.
My daughter stammered and gave me some lame excuse about how she did clean her room. And how she likes her closet that way. And how it’s her room not mine. And, and, and… A pre-teen hormonal meltdown ensued.
So I put my hand out, and she put her iPod touch in it. I told her that she could have it back when her room was clean. No iPod touch or any playtime until it was spotless. I walked out of her room before the meltdown escalated.
About fifteen minutes later, the kids and I left for school. As we are driving on the expressway, my son told me, “Mom, you forgot to print out my pictures for Student of the Week.”
“I forgot? **I** forgot?!” I coughed out. “No, YOU forgot. You forgot to ask Dad to help you do it. You were supposed to do that this weekend.”
“It’s okay. I don’t really need them today anyhow,” he rationalized.
“No, it’s not okay. You were supposed to do that this weekend, and you didn’t. You played Minecraft instead of doing the homework that you were supposed to do.”
I was getting pretty worked up. I wasn’t yelling, but my voice was definitely louder than normal as I declared, “That’s it. I’m cancelling fun today. No playtime for either of you.”
Both of them were silent. They may not always listen to me, but they know when to shut up.
“Neither of you can use your iPod touches. Or the computer. Or the Wii. Or the television. No fun for you,” I continued.
They remained silent, and drop off was pretty somber. After all, I had just cancelled fun.
I went about my day feeling mildly guilty for losing my patience. But, I decided, there had to be consequences for not doing what they were supposed to.
Still, I cancelled FUN.
At school pick up, I was waiting for my son outside of his classroom. As he emerged, the pensive look on his face revealed that he had been thinking about the “Cancelled Fun” situation all day.
He walked right up to me, and before he gave me his usual hug, he said, ”Mom. You may have cancelled fun today and taken away all of my toys, but there’s one toy you can’t take away.”
And then he pointed right to his head.
Smart little fucker. He got me. (And I should cancel fun more often.)
Photo Credit: gelpi / 123RF Stock Photo
14 Responses
I was reading this thinking it was my house, the hormonal teen, the minecraft obsessed boy….. so glad it just isnt me!
The minecraft I don’t mind so much. The hormones are driving me to drink (more than I already do).
Sounds like my son & daughter. The only difference is my kids do anything to avoid using their brains. Using their brains to entertain themselves would have been the punishment.
I am now picturing you screaming at your kids, “USE YOUR BRAINS! THAT’LL TEACH YOU!”
I love this kid. (I think I have half of this kid in my own son… the half that loves Minecraft. The other half would piss his pants and go fetal if I took Minecraft away).
He would have gone fetal had we not been so close to school. I guarantee that.
I cancelled fun once and the kids made a zipline for their toys outside and had a blast. Cancelling fun should happen once a week!
HAHAHAHA…OMG..I just snorted at work.
Fun canceller.
I fly off the handle regularly in the mornings (but OMG they all give me much reason to be annoyed!).Then everybody ends up in a pissy mood. Yep, it’s a great way to start the day. Sigh.
I had similar incident with my teen daughter, (thankfully years ago). There was a crawlspace door in her closet. I went in there looking for misplaced storage box. I found, are you ready?, 26 towels! ! I flipped out. I had been buying towels all summer. It never crossed my mind there might be a hidden stash of towels. We had a pool, so there were always towels in the laundry. She just didn’t want to wash them!
At least that time I didn’t throw a Steve Madden boot & have it get stuck in the drywall! !
I love that! Your son’s a keeper. 😉 And oh man, does the “you forgot to…”argument sound familiar. I’m going through that with both of my guys. I might just have to cancel fun around here.
I gave up long ago getting my daughter to clean her room. I kept her door closed so I didn’t have to look at it. It worked! It didn’t bug me at all. Now she’s eighteen and she cleans it-out of embarrassment.
But I can’t forget that time long ago when I bagged up her toys. Apparently it didn’t bug her at all (she helped).
Have a fabulous day:)
Hahaha! Excellent response, he’d fit in well at my place of work your son. We’re all smart-mouthed sarcastic fuckers =)
I have to say that I enjoy your blog. It’s nice to know that there are other moms out there that use a colorful language like myself. Your blogs crack me up and your kids seem quite sarcastic, I have 4 sarcastic children myself and the amuse the hell out of me. I will keep reading for sure. 🙂