Daughter was running the vacuum in the dining room. This was the 4th task and would get her her half hour of TV. Two more tasks and we'd be headed to town. I told her to call me to come check her work before she put the chairs back under the table. It was obvious she had missed several areas, and I pointed them out to her. She argued not that she'd done it, but that cat hair was impossible to see. I left and she ran the vacuum some more. She put the chairs back under the table. I went and checked. Again, she'd missed the same spot. I moved the chair and grabbed the vacuum and in one swipe got rid of the cat hair. She was mad. I asked if this was the way she cleaned when she went out on a cleaning crew from the workshop. "No, then I do the cleaning properly."
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"So why don't you do it properly at home?"
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She even admitted that she had never run the vacuum over the place I had pointed out to her-- even after I pointed it out. She was becoming increasingly belligerent, so I finally told her to go to her room until she was ready to do her work properly. She started making phone calls-- seeking to get away from her unreasonable Mom. She came downstairs and was frustrated that I wouldn't let her go out with friends to deal with her stress. I pointed out that she hadn't completed her work. She insisted she was back down the deep hole and couldn't get out.
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She went and got her plan for the day. I pointed out that I had cut down the work that she had originally proposed. I pointed out how close she'd come to completing it. She did complete two more tasks and watched some TV with me.
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She is really struggling right now. I wish there was a way I could help her find stability. I have some ideas on how I'm going to work with her on expressing her desires for the day in the morning. Maybe if she can verbalize her needs first think in the morning, she won't need to be so manipulative and call wolf.
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