slave for a day

i love my children. i really do. they are fantastic kids who make me happy to be alive, who help me understand the miracle of eternal families, and who have taught me much about what it means to be a mother. but sometimes, sometimes, i wonder where they came from. not in a religious sense but in a "did my child just really do that? who's kid is this?" sense. i don't take any crap, folks.

case in point: yesterday from the time i woke up until about 5pm i was having a most difficult time dealing with london. she is my precocious 7 year old who is much too emotionally "mature" (i.e. knows how to sass & manipulate like a teen)for her age. trust me on this; i am not bragging. it has been my biggest challenge with her thus far. anyway, i really don't even remember how it all started but she really loves to tell me no & i really love to NOT hear the word no so as you can imagine, we clash. i had asked her repeatedly to clean her room, read, do her flashcards, etc. we had plans to go to a park with some friends so i wanted to hurry and not make them wait. after a lot of squabbling & plenty of warnings, she ended up getting grounded for tuesday & having her playdate on wednesday canceled. i was determined to still attend the park that day so i took everything else away that i could. it got so unbearable that i called lee, sobbing, asking him to help me (he is 1,000 miles away, mind you). i got london on the phone and believe it or not, she still continued to sass & be defiant! she was not letting up. lee got so frustrated that when london handed me back the phone, he told me that her "punishment" was to do jobs ALL DAY (without pay, of course)and yes, that meant that the park was canceled for scarlett & myself as well. i had originally told the girls if they cleaned up their room within a 1/2 hour time frame, we'd still go. so i was the bad guy, the one who "lied". i was pretty upset but agreed with lee that she needed something more than time outs (cause honestly, they rarely work with london). By this time, it was lunch. we ate our food and then the slavery began promptly at 1pm. i explained to her, again, what was expected (jobs all day with no pay, work ending at 5, no playing, etc.)& why this was happening. here is the list of things this awful mother gave her, all the while following her around the house (helping where needed. i can't be all that bad then, right?):
-vacuum our bedroom
-dust our bedroom
-dust & polish the banister
-windex the picture frames in the hall & going down the stairs
-pick up the bathroom, even things that were not hers
-clean the mirrors in all bathrooms
-sort our laundry (which ended up being 4 or 5 loads)
-fold a load of laundry
-clear the table, wipe it down, put the table cloth on
-dust furniture in family room & windex all the glass tables

it was a much more pleasant experience than i expected. she gave me a little bit of lip but i tried to keep it positive by making silly faces at her or telling jokes. her misery was actually extremely humorous to me. i texted lee at one point, asking, "is it bad that i find sheer & utter joy watching this?" and of course he responded, "no. that's one of the many benefits of parenting". so i went on, enjoying every second. i sat around reading a magazine while she put in all her effort to get things clean, watching her walk away from folding the laundry out of boredom, only to come back to it by doing somersaults, and finally as she was cleaning the picture frames she began singing, "cinderelly, cinderelly, night and day it's cinderelly..." oh, how i laughed inside, an almost evil laugh. finally the time came for the workday to end (3.5 hours of cleaning!). she was so excited! i told her what a great job she had done with cleaning and that grandma would be so pleased to have these things done. she ran off and began playing, being very mindful of how she would act the remainder of the day. later, when i had put my children to bed, i left the house. i needed to get out for a few minutes for some R&R. i called bree, my wonderful sister at work and we were just chatting. she asked what i was doing and i said, "escaping the tragedy that is my children". that may seem harsh but i must admit it made us laugh pretty hard, mostly because it was a joke but also because i'm assuming she knew, being a mother herself, what kind of a day i had before i even told her. i am happy to say after all was said and done that london earned back her privilege of being able to play today.

i took the girls swimming today, just the three of us and we had a great time. no friends. it was fabulous. i played in the water with them the entire time and we really had fun, tickling, playing shark, practicing swimming, etc. this is what makes me proud to say i'm a mother. ah, the joys...