Traits

You know when you realize the thing about your offspring that drives you batty is the thing that you gave them? A trait given them without your consent. Case in point: I really am an organized person, you just can't really tell if you come to my house. Or Cinderella's room either.

I like things to be done right. So, often I'll wait until I have time to do things perfectly before I start on a project. Which means that sometimes a pile of bills and junk mail sits on the end of my table or counter for days. If I don't have time to file things in the correct way, I'll wait until I do have time. When really, if I threw away the junk mail and newspapers in the pile, then all that would be left is a tiny handful of paper that would take up much less space and look ten times better. I know this, I just have a hard time really doing it.

This is only one example of my hidden compulsion to have things perfect. And my great skill of procrastination. (Now, I should say that both of these traits have some use and can even be positive, if you use them right. The problem is, it takes time and effort to get them done right, and, frankly, that doesn't really bode well for the procrastinating perfectionist. Darn.) There are many more examples, but I've humiliated myself enough already. Now it's time to turn to the innocent children who have inherited my traits.

Yesterday, Cinderella was given an assignment to clean her room for thirty minutes. It didn't have to be perfect when she was done, but I wanted to see marked improvement. After a few false starts which ended in me taking away her Series of Unfortunate Events book and saying, 'you better get to work or you'll have a series of unfortunate events happening to you this very day!'-she got busy. And her inheritance of my procrastination and perfectionism reared it's ugly head. It is the reason her room still looks like this:(image blurred on purpose--it's scarier clear)

Yet, her bookshelf looks like this: All of her scrapbooking supplies are immaculately organized also. As well as the clothes hanging in her closet and folded in her drawers. She just didn't have time to get to the rest. And she really was working the full thirty minutes, I checked on her. Not being one to go back on my word, I let her play games with us, which was the reward for cleaning hard for thirty minutes. But, I will tell you, I did it begrudgingly, because, really, I just wanted her floor to be clean. I don't really care about her closet, bookshelf, or drawer. Sigh. I should have made it more clear in the first place. Oh well.

When we were finished playing the games, it was time to clean up. I left them to cleaning up the last game and hurried to start dinner. When I came back five minutes later, the game was still not put away!

"What are you doing, girls? I told you to put that game away. It should have been done four minutes ago!"

"We are. We're trying to get it organized," said Snow White, quite impatiently.

"Organized?! Just throw it all in the drawstring bag. How does that need organizing?"

"No, mom," Sleeping Beauty explained, "Cinderella got them all arranged according to color and size and we're putting the cards in order from easiest to hardest. Then we have to slide it in the bag carefully so it won't tip over and get all messed up."

Seriously?! Aaaah! I couldn't really even get mad, because, I know this comes straight from me. And, I have to admit that I like the way it looks put away like that too. So I helped them slide it carefully in the bag so next time we play we can just dump them all out into a pile to begin. Oh, why can't you pick the traits you give to your children?