Brittanie is 99% perfect. She is sweet, well-mannered, considerate, loving, and has morals and self respect. She doesn't do the things that most teenagers do at her age. We can trust her when she is not with us. That's why it is so hard to discipline her when she doesn't do the chores she is supposed to do. My first instinct is to see the big picture and say "well if this is the worst that she does, we are doing GREAT!" But I know that isn't right. Tom and I both have jobs to contribute to the household. Even Katie helps out with the clean-up around the house. Brittanie is supposed to clean the kitchen every night. That is her ONLY chore for the household. She is responsible for her own laundry, as well as keeping her room and bathroom clean. But as far as doing stuff for the family as a whole, the only thing is the kitchen. At the beginning of this year we were having problems with her "forgetting" certain things in kitchen clean-up. So I typed up a very specific list and taped it to her door, which is in the kitchen. I can't tell you the last time she did everything on the list. Joanie has been cleaning the kitchen when she comes because most of the time, Brittanie doesn't even bother to do the dishes, much less everything else on the list. This week, Joanie didn't come Tuesday or Thursday and was only here half a day on Wednesday. I pay Joanie to watch Katie and do our laundry. Well she couldn't get to the laundry this week due to family business she had to attend to. So I figured since Joanie has been doing Brittanie's job for her for months, Brittanie can do hers this week.....the laundry. Thursday I asked her if she had homework. She said she had a book report due. She has already read the book so that report should only take an hour tops to write. So I told her to do the laundry because Joanie couldn't do it this week. Well she did HER laundry, which she is responsible for anyway, and didn't touch ours. So Friday, I got up to find that not only did she not do the laundry, she didn't do the dishes....again! She was supposed to go with our church youth group to the fair last night for a concert. I grounded her and told her that I wanted ALL of that laundry done and EVERYTHING on the kitchen clean up list done or she wasn't going to the rifle team clinic Saturday. She said "You can't do that! I'll get kicked off the rifle team." I said "Then you better get to work!" Well she layed in Tom's recliner from 4 to 7:30....doing nothing....mostly sleeping. I was getting madder by the minute. She did exactly what she always does....puts it off till the last minute and then stays up extremely late trying to get it all done. She came to me at midnight and asked if she could go to bed because she only had one batch left in the dryer and she had just put it in there and it takes 45 minutes to dry. She had to be at school at 5:45am to go to the rifle team clinic. I told her she better make sure she gets up early enough to do that last batch of clothes before 5:30am, which is when we had to leave to go to the school or she wasn't going.....I meant what I said. She rolled her eyes at me!!! I was furious! I told her "You layed around here for 3 1/2 hours doing nothing and now you want to act like I'm unreasonable because I'm sticking to what I said, which is that it has to ALL be done or you aren't going. This is YOUR fault not mine!" She said "I know it is my fault." I told her that I didn't deserve for her to roll her eyes at me. But I told Tom she is going to complain to everybody on the way up to the rifle team clinic that I had her up till midnight doing chores without telling them that she was too lazy to start when she got home so she could have gone to bed at 8pm. She did obey though. She was running around the house, dressed for the clinic, putting away laundry. It was all done in time for her to go to the rifle team clinic. If she would just do things when she is assigned them, she wouldn't be as sleep deprived as she is and it would be less stressful on all of us.
But having to keep her from going to the fair made a knot in my stomach. I hate punishing her because she is so good 99% of the time and I love her. I don't like seeing that sad face. It is like kryptonite for me. But I can't overlook that 1% either because it is important. I'm considering having a talk with 1st Sgt about her procrastination. It is becoming a serious problem. It isn't just in chores. It is infiltrating her school work and every aspect of her life. This will have her flunking out of college and never promoted in the Army if she doesn't learn to do things in a timely manner.
You know if you want to do a good job as a parent, it sure isn't an easy task!! But it is all worth it in the long run.
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