Sunday, December 02, 2007

I Forgot the Sticker!

Saturday we were getting ready for people to come over. The house isn't too bad, but there always seems to be some kind of clutter. One of the things I wanted done was for Beth to clean her stuff off the kitchen counter. We have a breakfast bar where the kids used to eat breakfast and lunch when they were home. Now it just collects their stuff. Beth had quite a bit of stuff collected on her half of the counter. One of those things was 1/2 a bag of microwave popcorn. I can't remember how long that bag has sat there - while I waited for her to take care of it.

Finally Saturday I tell her she needs to take care of it because people are coming over, and she proceeds to claim that it is not her popcorn. Well, it wasn't anyone else's popcorn, and she is the one in the family who gets all kinds of snacks or sodas and then never finishes them. Since I can't remember exactly how long it has been there, I can't specifically tell her when she popped that popcorn and left it there. The only popcorn she would claim was the bag in her room. Now, did she pop that bag before or after she popped the bag on the counter? Either way, she didn't finish either bag, and the popcorn is no good any more, so she's just wasted it - whether she claims it or not. She never did admit that the bag on the counter was hers, but she did go ahead and throw it away.

This reminded me of another time we had the same kind of issue with putting the peanut butter away. OK, we have the same issues other times, but the issue with the peanut butter was one time I actually posted it. I just re-read it tonight and realized I was planning to place stickers with her name and the date on things that she leaves laying around, so I can know exactly when she left it there, and she can't argue that it's not hers or her responsibility. Of course, she'll still argue, but at least I'll have proof.

I honestly don't think it's too much to ask that people around here take responsibility for their own things. Really, I don't.

5 comments:

  1. That sticker idea is brilliant! My boys are always arguing about which one left out what, like it really matters, just put the dumb thing away. They take five times longer to argue about it than it would take to just take care of it already!

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  2. I think your sticker idea is a great one - that way she can't argue or try to avoid responsibility for her stuff! I should try that with Ron - he's the one who leaves stuff all over at our house. :)

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  3. I think the sticker idea is pretty good myself. It just doesn't work if I don't actually do it.

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  4. great sticker idea...picking things up reminds of something my husband said to me last night...
    I was complaining that the new family room that I cleaned the other was pretty messy and that when he is down there with the kids I would appreciate it if they would clean up when finished...his reply was..."It was already messy before I went down"...ok so that was his excuse for not cleaning it up...
    I fixed him, when he asked what was for supper I simply replied..."I'm not cooking tonight honey, I prepared one meal already today...May I should put stickers on the room I clean so that he will know when it's his turn to help out LOL

    Happy Holidays Anna

    Love the cute snowmen!\
    carrie

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  5. Just keep your fingers crossed that she grows out of this, cuz my husband still does it LOL He'll say "I didn't do that" or "I didn't put that there" - meanwhile, I'm looking around trying to figure out when someone other than him and me moved in LOL

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