OH THE DRAMA!

Apparently I am confused at what qualifies as a world ending event. Over Thanksgiving weekend, we've apparently had multiple and I've completely missed the serious nature of pretty much every one.

In all fairness, I'm not the only one to under value my children's life altering events, Kent is equally as guilty. Last night at the traditional "Parade of Lights" done after dark on Black Friday, apparently my son had a complete meltdown, multiple times when he wasn't directly handed candy from the parade. Kent said he dozens of pieces at his feet but instead of leaning over and picking. them. up. He chose to throw a fit. I guess because the candy doesn't taste as good if it's not hand delivered.

Kent was very unsympathetic and I suspect Ean might miss the next parade.

Kate told me in tears right before bed how *insert very dramatic voice* "It's so HARD to be eight!!" I do believe this statement came directly from a huge fight she just had with her sister and she got in trouble for throwing some of her sister's things on the floor.

Oh really? You think YOU have a hard life? I told there are children her age that work from dawn to dusk just to eat a handful of rice each day. She was very unimpressed so I suspect I will have to show her pictures and some books, maybe a good "National Geographic" so she can really see what a tough life is.

Then there's Jane.

Jane. Jane. Jane.

Dang, I love that girl. However we have a serious problem getting her to understand that there's a direct correlation between her choices and the ensuing consequences. Day after day we have the same scenario, Jane is given a task. Jane cheerfully ignores what is said and does what she wants. Even when warned of a consequence (such as not getting to go someplace special or missing out on a family movie because she still needs to perform the task) she gets very upset, why didn't we remind her? Why didn't we tell her that her time was running out.

Keep in mind this could be four or five hours after she was assigned a twenty minute task.

What she doesn't understand is that it's just as frustrating, actually more frustrating for us to see her lose out on opportunities because she's made a poor choice and not having her put two and two together, recognizing her role in the sequence of events, extremely frustrating for us! She very much feels the victim and often moans, asking why does she always have such bad luck.

I don't know what else to do other then to keep repeating that their individual choices have consequences and following through with those consequences.

Oh my word, today I was cleaning out the twins dresser. We attacked our Mount St. Laundry last week and have been working hard to keep that particular formation from, well reforming. *laugh*

The girls have been helping put clothes away. While this is suppose to help, I knew the disaster in the twins dresser was growing, so I went snooping today. I found every type of clothing, everywhere, including in the drawers, on the dresser and spilled over onto the floor on both sides.

*sigh*

So I put everything in a heap, cleaned out the drawers and started fresh in organizing that disaster.

It was fascinating, to say the least. I found my underwear in the twins clothes, a ballet skirt that belongs to Kate, TONS of socks that belong to everyone BUT the twins, a mountain of Ean's clothes, a t-shirt that belongs to Kent, and Kate's underwear. Obviously the girls have just been grabbing clothes, not even looking to see if they were even getting just individual pile and without even looking, shoving stuff where ever.

I told Jane.

Immediately Jane started with the excuses, "but it's so h..a..r..d.. to tell Ean's stuff from the twins. I pulled out my underwear without saying a word. "well, someone just put that in the wrong pile of laundry!"

I had to interrupt at that point, letting her know that she's to look when she puts stuff away and I showed her where the individual articles of clothes are to go. Yeah. I know she'll never follow through on that.

Well and I know Kate doesn't give a flying flip about doing it right, she's all about the shortcuts. I guess more checking is called for to make sure the job is done right.

I sure didn't save anytime the two hours it took me to sort through the twins clothes to put stuff away properly!