Nice Mommy, Mean Mommy

Yesterday the girls wanted to play Pillow and Blanket City.  You know the dreaded game where they get out every blanket and pillow in the house and try to build something to play in.  Having played this in the past, I know that while they have a blast playing that the mess and clean up theatrics are so not worth it.

Being a Nice Mommy, I told them they could play Pillow and Blanket City but I expected them to clean up their mess when they were done without me having to become Grumpy Mommy.  You know the yelling, annoyed, taking away privilege mom we all become when our whiny children are too tired or incapable to actually clean something up though they have plenty of energy for any other activity and were perfectly capable of getting all the stuff out in the first place.  I told them their future chances to play this game were completely dependent on the clean up.  But, wanting to be Nice Mommy for a change I let them play.

They had a blast.  They occupied themselves for several hours.  Of course, in addition to the pillows and blankets, they dumped all of their legos in the "house," used My Little Pony Memory cards for some purpose, made a path out of a 50 piece puzzle, and had several dolls and stuffed animals to take care of. My front room was a completely inaccessible crazy mess.  You literally could not get in and out of the front door, nor could you walk from one side of the room to the other.

When it was time to clean up I even sweetened the pot and told them if they could get it done in a certain amount of time without Mommy getting grumpy I would reward them and paint their toes.

You guessed it, Nice Mommy that let them play turned into Mean Mommy because no one would do a single thing to clean up.  Argh!  I did not expect perfection, but I did expect just a bit of actual effort.  I mean, I couldn't even nicely get them to put the pillows back in their room.  Ugh!  And Eliza Claire would come in the kitchen about every five minutes, look at me and state, "You are mean, Mom!" Yes I am, and you know what, my kids are all lazy!

Jenn