You Have To Go Through Me First

There’s a story I realized I never told you that desperately needs sharing.  I wish I would have gotten a video, but if you would have seen her reaction to the situation already it probably would have been a bad mom move to record it.

I hope my words do it justice.

The rule in our house for messes is based on a timer.  Depending on mess we give the kids say 20 minutes on the kitchen timer to clean it up.  Anything left on the floor is put in a box in our storage room for a couple of weeks before they can “earn” it back.

We give them plenty of time, however, they get easily distracted and have come to fear the timer since it results in them losing toys about half of the time.

So when I got home from work one day to see Justin at his tipping point due to a minor mess in the girls room that they just would not clean I tagged myself in and set the timer.

Taylor heard me do it.  Taylor was told I set the timer.  We gave reminders EVERY minute that counted down for 20 minutes.

Then the timer went off.  And the drama began.

I grabbed the toy tub and began putting things in it.  Taylor started shoving toys up her shirt and in her pants “NO, You can’t have them.  They are mine!!”

I kept a straight face and kept putting things away.  After her shirt was full she began diving in front of me and grabbing toys in my hand to throw to the opposite side of the room “You can’t take these!”

I had to turn away by this point because her absurd behavior coupled with bulging shirt and pants full of toys was a site to see and I couldn’t hide my giggle any longer.

“YOU LIKE THIS! You’re a monster” was her response.  I didn’t do such a good job hiding the smile and told her that I did not taking her toys away, but there were consequences for her actions.  I apologized for smiling and told her I wasn’t smiling because I liked it, but smiling because she was doing funny things.  I asked her to think about what she was saying and doing before doing it.

She the laid herself across her toys and glared at me “If you want these you have to go through me first”

Well, I lost it.  I had to leave the room at this point to gather my composure.  I came back in and finished the job by taking the toys out of her clothes while she screamed at me and I wondered where in the world did she learn things like “You have to go through me first”.

The best part was probably when I was done.  She held onto the tub handle as I pulled it out of the room "You're taking me with IT!"