(no subject)
Thanks for all your kind words on my last post. They had been playing in Maddie's room and it was trashed: clothes off the hangars, dresser emptied, toys everywhere, the blankets off of Lil and Alta's beds in Maddie's room. I told them to clean it up and then they could have dinner. This is a fairly common activity here. Sometimes they finish quickly and eat, other times they dawdle and play around until bed time and they don't eat. It's really up to them and if they're still hungry at bed time, well, then they eat a big breakfast in the morning.
The evening was wearing on and they still hadn't gotten much of anything done, a few toys were put away and that's about it. Then I saw Lilly dart out of Maddie's room into the bathroom across the hall, she slipped on the tile floor and fell down giggling. She jumped right up was out of sight for a moment, and then ran into Maddie's room with the jug we use for hair-washing full of water and dumped it out on the floor. Judging by her slip on the wet bathroom floor, it was not the first one that had been dumped onto the carpet. I seriously just lost it. Completely flipped out and started screaming (I didn't mention last night that I lost my voice due to yelling) grabbed them by their arms and drug them to their rooms and threw them into their beds and told them not to leave for any reason, I didn't care if they pee'd on themselves they were not to leave their room. Then I went to clean up the mess. They'd dumped water on the floor just in front of the door, soaked the rocking chair across the room. They also soaked the floor around the rocking chair, the bottom half of the curtains, and the play-mat in the middle of the floor. I started shaking I was so furious. I went back into their room, drug them out of bed, down the hall, rubbed their faces in the water pooled on the seat of the rocking chair, threw a towel at them, and made them clean every thing up while standing in the door way glaring.
I did eventually stop screaming, partly due to loosing my voice, partly due to sanity poking it's head up and saying, "Hey, I'm back. I had to step out for a moment, did you miss m- Ohhhh....."
Once they had everything picked up I did one by one take them aside and apologized and didn't say one thing about them not doing what I asked them to do, and everything about how I was wrong to hit them and yell and I was sorry I had done that. Which was hard, because I really was still pissed off that they did not pick up the room until I lost my shit AND that they thought it was ok to dump several gallons of water on to the floor.
The evening was wearing on and they still hadn't gotten much of anything done, a few toys were put away and that's about it. Then I saw Lilly dart out of Maddie's room into the bathroom across the hall, she slipped on the tile floor and fell down giggling. She jumped right up was out of sight for a moment, and then ran into Maddie's room with the jug we use for hair-washing full of water and dumped it out on the floor. Judging by her slip on the wet bathroom floor, it was not the first one that had been dumped onto the carpet. I seriously just lost it. Completely flipped out and started screaming (I didn't mention last night that I lost my voice due to yelling) grabbed them by their arms and drug them to their rooms and threw them into their beds and told them not to leave for any reason, I didn't care if they pee'd on themselves they were not to leave their room. Then I went to clean up the mess. They'd dumped water on the floor just in front of the door, soaked the rocking chair across the room. They also soaked the floor around the rocking chair, the bottom half of the curtains, and the play-mat in the middle of the floor. I started shaking I was so furious. I went back into their room, drug them out of bed, down the hall, rubbed their faces in the water pooled on the seat of the rocking chair, threw a towel at them, and made them clean every thing up while standing in the door way glaring.
I did eventually stop screaming, partly due to loosing my voice, partly due to sanity poking it's head up and saying, "Hey, I'm back. I had to step out for a moment, did you miss m- Ohhhh....."
Once they had everything picked up I did one by one take them aside and apologized and didn't say one thing about them not doing what I asked them to do, and everything about how I was wrong to hit them and yell and I was sorry I had done that. Which was hard, because I really was still pissed off that they did not pick up the room until I lost my shit AND that they thought it was ok to dump several gallons of water on to the floor.