Staying Sane – Raising Boys

Can you PLEASE explain to me how this works?

I told Alex four times to put his dirty clothes in the laundry. I wasn’t asking him to do the laundry. We have a laundry chute in the bathroom which is right outside his bedroom. Putting his dirty clothes in the laundry really is easier than making a bowl cereal for breakfast. But for some reason he didn’t hear me the first time. The second time. The third time and not even the fourth time. I sounded like an old nagging lady. The one I swore I would never sound like. I was going to be the fun, adventurous mom, not the nagging, boring mom in khaki pants and some old black top. But then I started to listen to my Fun Mom self and she didn’t sound so fun. And now I wonder how Fun Mom’s get shit done without nagging and repeating themselves over and over again with the same results. Isn’t that called insanity?

Then I tested something. It was one of those average Tuesday nights during the school year. My kids are only allowed to play on electronics during the weekend (not such a Fun Mom anymore huh?!) so it wasn’t even remotely possible that Alex would be allowed to play Xbox. It wasn’t on his radar at all. We had finished dinner and I had asked him 5 times, I’m not kidding, to clear the table. I was starting to get in that bad place where…well you can imagine (green eyed monster?). Instead I had a moment of brilliance and I stood at the kitchen sink and I whispered, “wanna play some Xbox?”

Hmmm, how interesting, he jumped up and ran over and said “Really?!”

Me: “Of course not. It is a Tuesday but now that I have your attention, clear the table right this very instant.”

For fun, and to keep me sane, I sometimes randomly whisper Xbox on those nights when I swear to God I’m going to lose my mind asking them to do the same thing over and over and over again. Seriously. Drives me bat shit crazy. And that, my sweet dear friends, is something I don’t think I’ll miss when they are in college. (If you have college age children and are shaking your head at my ignorance, please please let me stay in this blissful place of hope that they will learn to listen – someday).