Every week I try to keep notes on the things in my life that may be used for blog material. This past week gave me plenty, but the overriding theme was the different roles the members of our family play in the overall decision-making process. That is a nice way of saying that all would be fine if they simply remembered that I am the Central Commander and all movement must be cleared by me.
This position of Central Commander is one that is a singularly lonely position of power, one that I share with women everywhere. After twenty-two years of marriage, I have come to terms that job-sharing in any form is fine as long as someone understands exactly what jobs need to be done and when. My husband is a wonderful, patient man who spends lots of time away from home for his job, so I really don’t mind being in charge of the schedules. What I do mind is when there are glitches. Here are some examples from last week:
- Our 12-year old decided that he wasn’t going to an important Boy Scout meeting, held at the same time weekly, and instead went to a friend’s house. He took complete advantage of the fact that I wasn’t home and his father had forgotten that it was Wednesday.
- Our 10-year old felt compelled to buy the HD version of every app on his iTouch. He told me it was fine since he had the money to pay for all of the apps and he then handed me a wad of bills. It seems his grandfathers keep handing him $20s whenever they see him. We are a very close family so you can do the math. First, Santa delivers the iTouch without a consultation and now this. A clear breakdown in the system.
- Our 16-year old owns an uncanny ability to ask for the same thing one hundred times, always using different words to express the request. If only I had not allowed her to read so many books then maybe she would not know so many words. This tactic often causes a systems overload in my brain.
- An unclear message about pajama day prompted a 9:30 pm emergency trip to Kohl’s.
- I received an email from our daughter in Scotland that sent me into an absolute panic. Seems she meant to write “procrastinator” and “essay due” instead of “miserable” and “unable to sleep for days.” She always preferred numbers to words.
Along these lines, I continually try to impress upon my family that their agendas really do matter, but they need to meet me halfway by giving me written notification of all activities. I will even accept changes to the schedule as long as the request is received 24 hours in advance. Doing this would allow me to concentrate on my other jobs, namely Inventory Investigator and Partner-in-charge of Procurement. Those empty cereal boxes left in the pantry don’t replace themelves!
I have been exploring chemical free beauty and cleaning products for years now and lately I have been exploring the science behind it all for material for future blog posts. In the meantime, check out the cleaning products from Melaleuca.
I have tried them all and these products leave your house sparkling clean without the toxins. If you are interested in trying them out, please contact my friend, Jill Schantz at lucypelt@optonline.net.