[blparent] The maid wants to go on strike!

[Jo Elizabeth Pinto]

That's true, Sheila.  Cleaning a little at a time seems to work better for 
all of us because Sarah and I get overwhelmed if the house gets to be too 
big of a mess, too, along with my stepson, and then the whole thing turns 
into a meltdown.  I agree that doing some cleaning every night works better 
than letting stuff pile up.  I suppose I could do better at making that 
happen.

My stepson had a cheap Wal-Mart skateboard that broke yesterday, and right 
now he's really into learning tricks, which is good because at least he's 
out in the fresh air getting exercise instead of sitting in front of the 
computer or the TV.  So I told him I would get another skateboard when we 
went grocery shopping last night, but that in trade, he owed me five times 
of doing what I asked him without sighing or complaining, before he went 
home on Saturday.  I know he should be doing that anyway, but you take small 
steps, and I want to keep things positive with him when I can.  I also told 
him that if he ignored me, or said okay and then didn't do what I asked, 
more than twice today, I was going to have his dad put the parental controls 
back on the computer so it only worked in the evenings.  He wants to watch 
skateboarding videos and play some awful skateboarding game where you make a 
guy weave in and out of traffic and jump over cars and buses, so that 
strategy to keep him from ignoring me might work.  We'll see.  His favorite 
tactic is to say okay, he'll do something, and then not do it to see if I'll 
notice.

Jo Elizabeth

"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a 
song."  Maya Angelou

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Sheila Leigland" <sleigland at bresnan.net>
Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 3:38 AM
To: "Blind Parents Mailing List" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [blparent] The maid wants to go on strike!

> Hi, I don't blame you for wanting to go on strike. At the very least he 
> should keep his stuff in his own room. Getting teen to do things in a 
> timely manner isn't easy. I got tired of picking up after Mark also. 
> Taking priveleges only works in the short term but it can get the point 
> across. With mark it helped alot if we cleaned together and didn't let 
> things get to overwhelming which can easily happen with teens.
>
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