I didn’t hear any sound from outside of the bathroom. I wrapped my robe around me and listened. Nothing. I walked down the hall and peeked into Ari’s room. Still nothing.
“Are you downstairs, Ari?”
“Yes,” he replied immediately.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m watching hockey.” The NCAA Tournament must be on a commercial break since he’s never watched hockey before.
I turned and began to walk away. But then I noticed something. There were two stacks of folded clothes and paired socks lying on his bed.
“Ari, you need to come up here to finish putting away your laundry.”
Silence.
“Ari, you didn’t put away all of the folded laundry on your bed. I need you to come up and put it away.”
“I can’t hear you!” he replied.
No way.
“I’ll need you up here in the next two minutes to put away your laundry or I’ll come downstairs and take the remote away.” Because I know you can hear me, kiddo!
“Okay,” he said.
For the next two minutes, I busied myself. Oh gawd, am I really going to have to take the remote away?
“Should I come down or will you be coming up to put away your laundry?”
“I’ll come up!” he replied.
Ari walked up the stairs calmly.
“I don’t like that the only way I can get you to do a non-preferred task is by threatening to take away screens. Is that really necessary?” I’m asking for parents everywhere.
“No,” he replied as he walked to his room with a hangdog expression.
I noticed Ari struggle to lift up the socks because his fingers were inside his pajama sleeves.
“It might be easier to lift those if you have access to your fingers.”
I got a grunt as he removed his fingers from the sleeves and attempted to stuff the socks in his drawer.
“Please make sure the drawer can close,” I said calmly. “Also, there’s a pair of underwear popping out of the drawer above that needs to be tucked into the drawer.”
“Well, I will need a new pair tonight, so I don’t mind that it’s sticking out,” Ari said.
“Just-put-it-inside-the-drawer,” I said as evenly as possible so that I didn’t raise my voice.
We repeated this with stacks of sweatpants and long-sleeve shirts that he attempted to toss into the drawer despite them being folded.
Once everything* was put away, I said, “Thank you. That didn’t take a long time. Now you can watch the rest of your game.”
I could almost hear the yeah-yeah and I-can’t-believe-she-made-me-do-that in his head.
Raising Literate Humans 
This slice had me laughing and also cringing. I FELT you there, with the trying to remain neutral, and the wondering of why we adults often need to threaten taking something away to get them to do something (or bait them with an extrinsic motivator, ugh!). I also felt Ari, because for some reason, even though I love doing laundry and folding it, putting it away feels like this extra task that I never want to do!
Laundry, Ari, and me… it’s heated. He generates a lot of laundry. He will help fold it if I ask, but it’s more like a what’s-in-it-for-me situation.
I love this line…“Well, I will need a new pair tonight, so I don’t mind that it’s sticking out,” Ari said.
I’m sure you didn’t, but I can totally imagine that this is a thing little boys would say! haha
Glad he did the chore after all, but it must have been frustrating to have to coerce him to do it.
I went back and forth about keeping that in. However, I think many little boys would come up with someone like that so I kept it in there.
I gave up long ago with making sure that their rooms looked like a place I’d want to be! But the chore thing is real and the threats work, but they are so tedious! My one hope is that, occasionally, one of them will clean their room because it’s gotten too chaotic even for them! (By the way, we bundle access to TV to folding laundry so that they do it without too much push-back…it just takes at least as long as one minecraft video!!)
You’re giving me the idea to start measuring a chore in terms of the time it would take to do ____ on a screen.
First sorry he is still sick! Feeling better might help his mood but who knows. I do know that my grown children now make sure their house is clean and beds are made when we come over. They also apologize to me if things are a bit mess after a busy week with work and little one. I guess all that nagging when they were little made a difference. Hang in there Mom!
He managed to stay fever-free without Tylenol today. Hoping he makes it to school tomorrow!
“I don’t like that the only way I can get you to do a non-preferred task is by threatening to take away screens. Is that really necessary?” I’m asking for parents everywhere. – Yes, yes you are. I’m glad that Ari put his things away and still stunned by all the rigamarole that comes around simple, normal, everyday tasks. Why not just do it? At least we know we’re in this together.
I don’t want to make my bed daily, but I do it as soon as I get out of the bathroom. Why? Why not just get it done!?!?!?!
The struggle is real. My kids are grown now, and I just wrote about missing them. THIS is one thing I certainly don’t miss. AND, now that they are on their own, their rooms/apartment are picked up. When they are home, it is back to the old days. UGH!
My room was a mess as a kid. Once I got to college, I realized I had to clean it up myself. What an eye opener that was for me! Funny how our perspective changes when we have to do the work ourselves.
When my boys were growing up, we went through this many times!! It was extremely frustrating, to say the least. (Good thing he finally made his way to finish the clothes.) The funny part for me is when each of my kids lived with room or house mates, and would get mad at the messes left by the others.
That was me in college when I had roommates. I was so annoyed by their mess, which caused me to stay neater!