Friday, April 28, 2006

The bedroom has been done and so have I

I wrote this column about three weeks ago and it was published on April 13 and followed this Tears and Tantrums post where I misguidedly thought the room was tidied, alas it was an optical illusion as you can read here.

The bedrooms been done and so have I

I wrote recently about the Young Wan and her silent defiance in not tidying her room. I have lost count of the days waste not doing it, well I haven’t really it was 17 days before she copped on and finally did it.

Or so I thought.

It all began nearly three weeks ago when she asked could her friend come to stay the night as she was already drafted into cleaning up her bedroom I decided right okay you want someone over well that room needs to be done.

The Young Wan performed the worst-ever cosmetic job on the room, you know the kind where things and mounds are shoved into every crevice she can find in the room. And it is amazing how much rubbish fits into the tiniest of places.

So by the time the pal left the room was worse than before.

And since then we have been in a tidying/not-tidying stalemate.

Each day she has been told to get in there and just do it. But she has dawdled, daydreamed, talked, just watched the end of Coronation Street and fluffed her way into doing anything other than the room.

Unless I was standing over her nothing at all was done.

This all came to a head last weekend when I went mad. I had a busy time at work and I practically pleaded for her support and would she just do the room and make me happy.

She didn’t, that’s when I went bananas.

After that in fairness to her she finally, after 17 days, got stuck in, well so I thought as I said earlier.

While it was far from clean – she had picked up lots, cleared lots away and for the first time in months daylight was streaming into the room.

I should also say that I found the missing dinner plate mentioned in this column a couple of weeks ago, not under the bed, not near the bed or by the bed but actually on the bed.

I looked at her and got the blank look back.

Now in fairness while she has a big high-rise bed, and it is bigger than mine, still and all how can you not know at all that there is a dinner plate on it?

At a quick glance I knew there would need to be a final cleansing finishing touch from me to her room, but I can well handle that. I didn’t and don’t expect the Young Wan to tidy to showroom standards but some level of tidiness would be fantastic.

Once I don’t have to mountain-trek across piles of clothes to move around the room, a few patches of mess were nothing and nothing that can’t be sorted out in five minutes anyway.

Oh she had hugs and kisses and jokes and thank yous and she lapped them all up. I promised her a new MP3 player if she pulled her weight up to next payday; the mummy-world was her oyster.

Then I went in this morning and found two bin bags of stuff that should have been put away. I found a so-called rubbish bag with things that shouldn’t be thrown out. My heart sank to be honest.

So it will be a busy night in our house tonight.

The bedrooms been done and so have I!

Technorati tags:

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Redmum I've really got the answer here. Threaten her with Kim and Aggie. Really, get the info needed from Channel 4 and perhaps get it addressed to her. Reveal nothing. It worked when I was a kid.Of course,not with, "How Clean is your House" but I was often threatened with the fear of being sent onto "Jim'll Fix It" to sing with Abba by 3 much older sisters.

Anonymous said...

When you have a free moment, could you come around here and have a word with Laughboy number one?

Failing that, could you post a full-blooded description of what "going bananas" entails?

Emma in Canada said...

Ah, redmum, I don't think this is a fight either of us will win. My daughter was sent up to her room yesterday to clean out her craft cart (the one chore I had left for her some 3 weeks ago) and spent an hour doing one drawer, when I went up that night the contents were spread all over one part of her floor. She's up there now, banned to her room until Sunday if need be.

Red Mum said...

Tawdrey: I dont know if Aggie would work, she seems to have been unphased by the thought of it being posted up on Google video!

Laughman: My consultation fee is very competitive, will work on the going bananas description.

Emma: It is a losing battle and I spent most time closing the door...

Woman of Wales said...

My 16 yo daughter decided that rather than clean out the very smelly fishtank in her bedroom she would get rid of the problem by moving it to the bathroom with the promise that it would be cleaned the next day. After 5 days I gave her a deadline of 4pm today or it would be going back into her bedroom. Came back to find she had added the poor fish to the bigger tank downstairs thus avoiding the need to clean the tank out. Tank is now sitting on the lawn outside still full of stones etc but hey at least she poured the stinking water away - where she poured it doesn't bear thinking about!