Desperate Times...

Not to pick on Chase solely, Kaely has been a source of angst and anxiety herself lately- compounding any frustrations I have over Chase's crazy antics. Anyone with the misfortune of being around me recently has seen how exhausting and overwhelming the two of them can be- especially Kaely and her mouth (hello karma).

Sigh... I swear, although these issues have been floating around here and there for years- nothing has compared to the past couple months. Blame it on school issues with substitutes for the past couple months, her "friend" (more like the frenemy crap), Chase, or whatever else you can think of- all I know is that if I don't get a handle on this now, the pre-teen and teenage years are going to bowl me over hard.

Sooooo... when in doubt- chart it out ;) j/k... but seriously. It's worth a try. Both a rewards chart, and a consequences chart. I'm hoping that being able to visualize and keep track of her actions may help towards changing habits for the better. Worst case? I wasted 15 minutes creating it... if she does awesome, I'm out $10 total- ehhh, so what (small price to pay for my dwindling sanity). I figured I'd leave the consequence up to her- be it a spanking (which I think I've done maybe 3 times ever in her life- apparently I should've done it more), or grounding for a week. Not that the grounding is all that different from normal routines (since I rarely have the tv on when they're awake, no video games anyway, and playdates are hard to get people to follow through on)... but... it's the principle of the matter.

Plus, I feel so horrible by the time she's finally in bed, constantly having to repeat myself over and over and over (...and over...) again every single day about the same things- clothes on the bathroom floor, leaving the toothpaste/toothbrush on the sink, towel on the floor in front of her dresser, in the morning her pj's on the floor in front of her dresser, the same issues listening to the 'safety' rules when she rides her bike to school, focusing on homework, her grades slipping at school, etc... it's like Groundhog Day... AHHH!

One can hope- it's worth a try... besides, some of the things she does go out of her way to do- such as wanting to dust or vacuum, deserves acknowledgement and rewarding :)