…that with five children, none of them babies, I’d have a constant supply of helpers in the house. But no of course not, it seems that some jobs are exclusive to me, aren’t I the lucky one.
- Emptying the bin- oh they just love to see how much they can possibly squeeze into the bin even if that means shutting the lid down onto leftover dinner, the messier and squishier the better because Mummy just absolutely loves scraping pasta sauce and bits of broccoli off of the inside of the bid lid.
- Toilet rolls, another favourite, why don’t we see how many used toilet rolls we can stack up in the bathroom before Mummy notices them and her head explodes
- Wash up…properly. Now I do delegate when it comes to washing up but how come I am the only one that sees all of the dirty dishes? Obviously the glasses and saucepans to the right of the sink miraculously vanish when one of the children are washing up, however they kindly reappear when I turn up after doing yet another job.
- As you can imagine this is a favourite…not! Picking up the dogs mess in the garden.
- If the washing basket isn’t in the bathroom why on earth would anyone think to bring their dirty clothes downstairs to the washing machine, oh no lets see how tall we can make the dirty washing mountain today, shall we?
- Lets see how many times I can get away with walking past my bag that Mummy has kindly put on the stairs for me to take up to my room , 10, 20, 30, 100 before she gives in and does it for me.
This is just a taster, I could go on and on and I could also embarrass my children with some of them but of course I wouldn’t do that.
Yes after a tough weekend I am feeling battered and bruised and whilst I am trying to make light of the situation it is with a lump in my throat that I ask myself where have I gone wrong. I think basically I am too nice and once again I have been taken advantage of, seems to be a common problem of mine and something I need to work on. I bend over backwards to make my children happy, I don’t ask a lot of them apart from respect but they’re old enough to see that I run myself ragged doing it all completely alone and I have had enough.
I am not saying they are all like this, a couple will do things when I ask them but it is usually not without protest. I think a problem is that they all try to pass the buck, “Why can’t so and so do it?” “I did that so why should I do that?” etc etc… I must point out that they do all have little jobs to do. I’m sure most children aren’t going to volunteer to do another job but times by five children it leaves a lot for me and what I’d like is to be able to ask them to help me without being made to feel as though I am the worst mother on the planet because I dared to ask. What would be even better was if they had some pride and if they see a used toilet roll put it in the bloody bin!
So, it appears that I’ve got to toughen up if only for my own sanity, it looks as though I may have to devise a list of house rules…that’s going to go down well.
What is it with the toilet rolls? We have a bin right next to the loo, but my kids always just drop the used rolls on the floor!
Can you believe they are still there and the mountain is growing…I have even said to one of them about them and his reply was I thought x might want to make something with them! Arghhhhhhhhh
I can SO relate to this. Why are all kids exactly the same? Like you, I sometimes wonder if I’ve been too nice – if I shouldn’t have started getting them to pick their clothes up etc when they were 3 or 4, so I wouldn’t still be doing it at 12! Thanks for submitting this for the Britmums teen and tween round-up, a great post!
I could have written this and about my husband as well as the kids. I do try to get them all to do their bit. A chart of chores might help. Reward charts work for mine but they are still small. Hugs honey x
I think because there are five of them they each always feel hard done by believing that they’re doing more than the other…and in turn they’re not actually doing anything. I honestly can’t see this improving but I will try. 🙂 XX
Oh this is exactly how things are in my house too – and made extra complicated because Smiley can’t help because of her disabilities, my son sometimes ‘can’t’ help because of his aspergers, and I feel guilty asking my eldest daughter to do all the helping! So often I do everything and just end up grumpy and miserable x
Yes I can imagine the dilemma here, although my children have no excuses they make me feel guilty because I could ask someone else which in turn ends up being me because it’s easier. X
Does it help to know that you aren’t alone in this area? No? I thought not.
It does help…I’m sure most parents of teens go through this at some point. 🙂 x
Oh no! I know exactly how you feel. I’m the only one with the required Phd qualification to change the loo roll. It also amazes me the effort people will go to, to ram in more rubbish in the bin rather than actually just empty it.
If you every find the answer to getting the others to help then I’ll be here to listen. x
Oh yes I forgot about actually changing the loo roll!
I will definitely share my knowledge if I get any closer to the answers although I fear we may have gone too far…sob X