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The box that the girls' bathroom light
was left under the sink.
Lela found it and whilst in the bathroom,
broke the styrofoam into pieces.
Tiny balls almost lighter than air rolled and blew over the floor.
I didn't follow through with having her clean it up,
and they moved to the bedroom,
where they created a snowy day for their dollhouse inhabitants.
Once again, I didn't follow through with telling them to stop their mess,
and the snowy day turned to a blizzard.
It got much worse than these pictures.....
Far, far worse......
The tiny little bits of styrofoam clung to everything.
Every stuffed animal in the room.....
In between the sheets......
On the walls.....
In our hair......
I admit that I lost my patience more than a couple times,
with three little girls who were having more fun rolling on the floor
than helping vacuum and shake tiny balls out of everything.
After emptying the vacuum canister about a dozen times,
and unclogging the motor filter nearly as often,
shaking out all the sheets,
brushing off each toy,
we declared the room almost clean.
Now there are only about 3 million little balls of foam hiding and sticking in unlikely places.
Down from 3 billion.....I don't exaggerate.
I don't feel particularly good about my temper flaring with them,
though I admit that I don't mind them seeing me (rightfully) upset.
I have had a couple apologies -
for not listening and disobeying and for doing something wrong in the first place.
I've also issued a couple apologies -
for yelling, and for not seeing that they followed through.
Lela's consequence is picking up 25 balls once, twice or three times a day, until they are gone,
(the little ones are at 20).
My consequence is having to enforce the aforementioned consequence......and follow through...
These are small children.
Small children are not small adults.
Small children make messes.
Small children should not be expected to control their impulses all the time.
Small children can learn a lot by having a (relatively) grounded parent,
helping them wade through the consequences of their actions.
And it seems like I have to relearn this every day.
~carrie~
