Wow, somewhere in the last two weeks I lost my 400th post, it just passed me by. This is post 411. I can’t believe I have had so much to say! I hope some of it was erudite and entertaining!
So… my darling nearing 7 year old daughter is driving me nuts. I am begging to think that she adds one repetition for each year of age. At three, I only had to ask her to do something three times, at four, it was four times. Now, as we near seven, I swear it is seven times, occasionally eight (everyone needs one to grow one after all).
“Monkey, have you brushed your teeth?”
“Uhh…. no.”
“Okay, please go brush your teeth.”
“Okay!”
A few seconds later, I will find her in her room with a doll, or hear her singing in the bathroom, or find her suddenly practicing her piano.
“Monkey! Brush your teeth!”
“But I don’t want to.”
“We go through this every day Monkey, if you are going to eat, you have to brush your teeth. That is your responsibility, they need to be kept healthy and clean. So please, go brush your teeth.”
“Oh, all right.”
She will disappear into her bathroom and I will wait, in vain, for the sound her her electric toothbrush. More minutes will pass.
“Monkey!! Why am I not hearing you brush your teeth?”
“Oh! I needed to use the potty!” or “I wanted to change my shirt!” or “I spilled water on the floor when I was filling up my tea set instead of doing what you have asked me to do so many times that you are beginning to feel like a trained monkey!”
“Okay, well, we are running out of time, so unless you would rather have stinky breath to breathe on people all day long, please brush your teeth!”
“Okay!”
Oh my god!! She does this for every single thing I request of her… everything!!
Homework, dinner, room cleaning, socks, shoes, jackets, baths, shower, etc. Everything takes more than one request, usually more than two! Sometimes I feel as though all I ever do is repeat myself!!
It makes me want to stomp my feet and scream “WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE LISTEN TO ME!!”
I will be driven bat-poo-crazy by the time she reaches sixteen, when I will have to write the great american novel, just to get her teeth cleaned!!
SavvySpoons 