It had been a busy day and while typically I would ask the children to fold their laundry, I decided to get theirs done while I was on a phone call and let them put the folded clothes up in their rooms afterwards. I caught my son as he stuck his head out from his room and said to come down to get the basket. He was jumping around, acting things out in the audiobook he was listening to and didn’t want to leave. I told him to hurry, it would just take a second.
I gave him the basket, told him to put the clothes up and that I would be up shortly to check his work. I did this because twice now he’s taken the basket up with folded clothes, sat it on the floor and left it for multiple days. At other times, he’s emptied the basket by cramming the clothes into drawers. Hence the, “I’ll be up to check your work” comment.
I knew he heard me because he didn’t have anything distracting him like a show, video game, audiobook, book, friends, LEGOs, anything else you could think of basically. He is the king of distracted. I got my other work done and came to get the laundry basket to bring it downstairs so I could bring his sister’s clothes up in.
He was asleep a full two hours before he typically would be and the basket was nowhere in sight. I found it, hidden around the corner with the only thing missing being the pajamas he was wearing. So I woke him up. He intentionally made the choice not to put the clothes up after having them folded for him and he needed to know that wasn’t going to be acceptable. Also, he hadn’t brushed his teeth because his toothbrush was dry.
He didn’t like being woke up. He got mad. He got really mad and I stayed calm. Eventually I had to match his volume because I couldn’t get through to him that I was serious. He said he wanted me to send an email to the school saying he would be tired tomorrow due to, “bad parenting.” He said it was all my fault that he was a zombie and he couldn’t stand the light and loads of other things, but he had to put the laundry away. Period.
I left and he threw a massive tantrum by himself in the room. When he quieted down I went to check and he had shoved—and shoved things in the wrong drawers intentionally. He had to fix it and he bellowed more. Then there were the teeth. That made him angry and when he only swished for five seconds we swished a second, third and finally fourth time because I was timing him after hearing him take such a short time while I tidied his bed.
He was so mad. He screamed. A lot. He lost though and at the end, after everything while I was quietly sitting in the rocking chair in his room he said in a calm, quiet, normal voice, “Mom, can you cut my hair after school tomorrow?” I said I’d be glad to, but did he want his father to take him to get someone who knew what they were doing to cut his hair after school instead? No, he told me, he liked how I did it.
He went from incredibly angry to suddenly regulated in a matter of minutes. He even let me hug him before leaving and telling him I loved him as I shut the door for the night.
The Big Boy Update: My son has played a lot of Minecraft over the five-day weekend he had from school while parent/teacher conferences and teacher workdays happened. He has been so excited about some of the new things he’s building that he wants to talk to his father and me about it with incredible enthusiasm non-stop. If anyone has a spare hour to spend, I’m sure he’d be glad to tell you all about it, barely pausing for breath the entire time.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Last night we went to our friend’s house for dessert. This was because their daughter is home from college—the daughter that got COVID-19 so her brother, Blake, stayed with us for a week. While we were there, Luna, one of their dachshund's , jumped up on the couch and sat on my daughter’s lap. My daughter gently petted her and was so very happy. She loves animals and Luna has never been so forward before, typically wanting to stay away from the fast moving child with grabby hands.
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