Thar She Blows!

I really blew my top at my kids today. Their room has been an absolute disaster for over a week, and I finally had the energy today to do something about it. We all went in and I started directing the cleaning, assigning them certain tasks while I really did the bulk of it. The kids were whiny and slow, more inclined to play than clean. We were maybe half-way done when Sean really started fussing, so I gave Bethany and Meagan each something to do while I was gone, and went to rock Sean to sleep. I didn't really expect them to do much while I was gone, but what I didn't expect was for Bethany to do what she did. I was sitting there rocking Sean when I heard a series of crashes and bangs from there room. By the time I got Sean down and went back to their room, Bethany had totally trashed the room: everything we'd just picked up plus every other drawer or container of toys was emptied all over the room. I was so angry, I sent them to their beds, and they got to watch me sort and clean up all their toys, then bag about 2/3 of them to "throw away." In reality, I had one bag that I was definitely throwing away, one bag that I wanted to take to Goodwill or somewhere, and one bag that I wanted to hang on to, but not have out right now. But they didn't know that. They just thought I was throwing them all away. I also banned Bethany from the computer and the Wii for the day.

It seems to have worked, though. Tonight, when Nate was getting the kids ready for bed, there were toys on the floor again, of course. When he suggested they clean up, Bethany said, "Good idea, Dad." And then she started cleaning right up, and even told Nate to go away, and she'd do it. He came back to check a couple minutes later, and they'd already picked most of the toys up. They weren't sorted into their right places or anything, but they were picked up. Let's just hope the willingness to keep things clean persists.