Maybe Boarding School Isn't Such A Bad Idea.

"I don't want to clean up! I didn't make the mess! Lydia's friends made the mess!" or "I didn't pick up those toys because I didn't get them out, the babies did". I hear this malarkey every day followed by, "you're the meanest Mom in the world! You hate me! Why don't you like me?!". Today, after I sent Quinn to her room for being defiant and just all out insolent, she made a sign that reads, "Please don't come in my room aneless (unless) you are Jayden. I mean it! Hayden, Mom, Dad, Lydia, Will. From Quinn." and another one says, "Go away! Never, ever come in! Go Out! NEVER! From Quinn."

While she was having her fit, Lydia was thrashing on the floor because I was asking her to help clean up the disaster area that was the living room and she was screaming, "it's not fair! Quinn doesn't have to help!"

So, Lydia got sent to her room too and after baths, everyone was in bed by 7:20pm - although the older two didn't actually fall asleep until 8:00pm.

Why is it that they think, just because they didn't get something out to play with it, they don't have to pick it up? I have been saying over and over, we're a family, we work together. It doesn't matter who gets what out, if it needs to be picked up, do it. Lydia and Quinn always say, "It's not fair, the twins don't have to pick up". Frankly, Will is a better cleaner upper than any of them. He just does it as he walks by something. I tell the girls, though, that when they were 2, I didn't ask them to clean up either. I also say, I pick things up all the time that I didn't get out or leave lying around. Quinn told me today, "that's because I'm the Mom, I'm supposed to do that."

Work ethic! This is the beginning of it and I feel like they're off to a rocky start. I'm sure in school they are told to take care of what they get out and put it away, which is fine. But at home, we try to say they should help each other and that when we all do our part to clean up, it goes faster, we get more accomplished, and it's over. Instead, they argue over every little thing and walk over toys they didn't "get out" just to avoid picking up an extra item. It drives me batty! Between this struggle and the, "she hit me! She pinched me! She touched me! She talked to me! She looked at me cross eyed! She called me a baby!" fighting, I am thinking boarding school sounds great - in Switzerland!