Monday, February 15, 2010

Today, I threw a tantrum...

...and told Kittyboy I am no longer picking up after him.
You cannot picture the disaster he creates in ONE DAY. Folded linens and blankets off the foot of the bed, EVERYTHING off the bed, toys all over, books all over, no floor visible. We're talking, 4-6" deep of no floor visible.
I told him HE and only HE was picking up his room. I sat on his bed and directed - for an hour. "Monster truck, under the rocking chair - under the rocking chair - next to the school bus, under the rocking chair - yes that. To the vehicle box. Vehicle box. Yes! Now the shirt. Shirt. Gray shirt. By the shelves. By your foot. UNDER your foot. Look down. Shirt. Gray shirt. YES. Take to the bathroom - and come back." Long hour. Long, long hour. But, he did it! I refolded what had been folded, because he can't do that, but HE got all his bedding - pillows, sheet, 8 lb blanket AND huge comforter - back on his bed, and I made him straighten them out himself. Straightening the sheet involved several games of peekaboo, as he threw it over his head and then pulled it off to flatten it out, and his face was so serious the whole time, it was all I could do not to laugh. Then he climbed back down, grabbed the corner of the weighted blanket, and could only get the corner up to the edge of the mattress on the first try. He grabbed it lower and tried again. After a few tries, he got enough of a corner on top of the mattress that it didn't fall all the way down again, so then he scrambled back up, sat on the mattress, and started hauling hand over hand. I kept waiting for him to get frustrated, and was going to prompt him to ask for help, but he got the entire thing up. And straightened it out.
I did help straighten the big comforter, that was too big for him. But YAY for the three-year-old picking up his own room!!!

2 comments:

Pres. Kathy said...

Awesome! Now it is Niko's turn to learn!

Mary said...

Good for you! You did just right! Now he knows how much work it takes to straighten a room.