I can likely best be described as a passionate person. This has served me well- I work with passion for the children in my program. I parent my boys with passion, and I passionately stand behind those who work with me as teachers in my program and who are my friends. Unfortunately, this is also the personality trait that also works so strongly against me much of the time. I am passionate when I am trying to get the special education department to understand a need that I see as important for of my boys. I am passionate about helping the children who are in my school and I am passionate about ensuring that my boys are the best they can be.
This morning is a snow day and my plan was to wake up and enjoy a calm day filled with board games and 1:1 time with each of my boys. Unfortunately there was also a pile of laundry that needed to be put away, Matthew decided he needed to make pancakes and David decided that he should eat yogurt ALL OVER THE COUCH!!!! What started as a slow, easy going morning became a morning of chaos and craziness.
I asked the boys to please put away laundry and I asked Jacob to please throw away the garbage in his room. This was quickly met with grumbles, complaints and overall anger on his part. While I ignored and ignored and ignored, there is a point in time where one simply cannot ignore a child's grumbling and I responded with passion! Not a passion I am proud of but more a passion that made it clear that he needed to stop complaining and start working. Unfortunately my passionate request that he stop complaining and start working was quickly met with his own passionate desire to create a stand off. I have never in my life seen a child "work" for an hour and accomplish SO little! I swear I could still not even enter his room after an hour, and the grocery bag he was using for garbage was less than half full.
As I walked downstairs, hoping to give Jacob some time to restart, I saw a couch covered in yogurt.I am ready for a new couch but buying a new couch is pointless. David starts every morning with a buffet all over my couch- yogurt, cereal, bagels, frozen waffles.....all over the couch! I can set him up with a bowl of cereal and milk in the kitchen and he will bring it into the family room and eat it and spill it ALL OVER MY COUCH! I know what you will say, watch him, supervise him...but honestly as a single mom I can get up at 5 AM and those days he will sleep until 7, or I can get up at 7 and those days he is up at 5 AM. He is silent as he sneaks downstairs and starts his buffet all over my couch.
What he wants is a tv set in the kitchen, but that is just something I am unwilling to give into. I have added the SPECTRUM cable app to his ipad so he has access to all of his tv shows and can watch them in the kitchen but apparently that is not enough for him. I dont know what else to do to solve this problem, short of putting a tv in the kitchen and that is simply something I am unwilling to do.
As for Matthew, he cooked pancakes this morning. This is something he is very good at, but unfortunately also is not great at cleaning up from. Apparently an egg cracked on the kitchen floor and I walked through it, and the griddle is covered in egg and pancake residue and while he is now recleaning it.....well, just yuck.
I kind of want a snow day redo, and I do totally know that these problems too will pass, and I will become less passionate or this passion will serve the boys and I well as they recognize that they have to be responsible for cleaning and putting things away and caring for themselves, but today the passion seems a little over the top and bonkers as I try to teach 3 boys how to be their best selves.
