A little while back when we moved the oldest daughter downstairs into her new bedroom the whole house began to change. We decided that while we were moving things around we would take the time to pull out the carpet in the master bedroom so that we could lay down some hardwood floor. The whole second floor has been a mess ever since. Dressers and armoires and chest trunks were pushed into corners of the youngest daughter's bedroom for a brief period of just a little while until we could get things under control. We packed everything into dozens of unlabeled boxes so that we could move stuff around much easier and then shoved them into every available corner we could find.
The youngest has been quite pleased with this. All of this moving around has given her the opportunity to camp out on various couches and air matresses and basically spend her summer time having one big slumber party. And so, for the past two months she has mostly settled in with her sister downstairs in the lower regions of the house, and it has seemed as though this was enough.
But then I caught the tail end of a conversation the other day and my heart sank.
I aaaaammm a lousy parent. My wife had inquired why Aly had been wearing the same shirt for two days straight and how filthy it was. We are used to this from our youngest daughter. It is one of those traits that she was born with and will hopefully outgrow. She can put on clean clothes and a minute later they are dirty. I don't know how. But then I heard my daughter's reason. And I felt absolutely awful. Upstairs, in the room packed with dressers and trunks and boxes and bed frames and mattresses was her dresser, tucked neatly in the furthest corner of the bedroom. With all of her clothes. Our daughter has been keeping herself groomed and in clothes by washing laundry for herself for the past two months. Whenever we ask the girls to run a load of laundry while we're at work, Aly has been clever enough to make sure she had clothes for herself.
Today I unburied her dresser and made it accessible. I'm pretty sure tomorrow I am going to have to figure out a way to get her room back now that school's about to begin.
9 comments:
It sounds like the two of you are terrific parents - after all look at what a resourceful child you've raised!
I hope the floor and all the rest goes well.
I wish someone would come in and turn our lives upside down for a while so that after ward we'd be living in a nicer space.
I wish.
Yeah, big props to the kiddo for solving the problem on her own.
And I don't believe for a second that you are a lousy parent. I don't think anyone else who visits this site regularly fells that way either.
Your kids aren't starving or neglected or abused. And the oversight of inadvertently blocking off access to her dresser was not a deliberate or hurtful act.
Some times we have to make a few sacrifices to get what we want. I'm sure she just looked at the inconvenience as "doing her part" to get the floors squared away. It is actually a testament to your parenting skills that she knuckled down and did her part rather than just instantly start complaining about the inconvenience. Most kids would have chosen to whine.
Yes, she is pretty resourceful. I just feel bad that I didn't realize that I had blocked access to all the things in her bedroom. I know she at least has shoes. I trip over them everyday as I walk through the living room.
That was my Dad's pet peeve...leaving your shoes all over the house.
This is why I don't do home repairs.
And Troy is walking around in a filty shirt right this second. I wish I could blame it on home repairs!
Very resourceful of her. With that kind of attitude no doubt big things are headed her way in the future.
Zak,
Going through your old post I see that Mr. Toasty barely turned 20 months old. I am pretty sure that he and his folks have a pretty good excuse for him wearing a dirty shirt. Thanx. :-)
Laoch, I think you are right.
Thank you so much for your note the other day. Everytime I see your blog name - I'm just so struck and immediately start being reflective. Is it from a literary work?
What a great post and a totally lovable kid. Isn't life sometimes a fun adventure? I love the way you wrote this one Beaux
Linda
Aw you are great parents. GREAT!And I bet when you finish this home renovation its going to look great. Your daughter sounds a sweetheart too and copes well. And yes she will grow out of that. She is a kid and having fun and good for her, truly!!
Post a Comment