Those lazy people in your office? Here's how they got started.
When we’re not eating, our kitchen table also serves as an arts and craft area for the girls. As such, it—and the floor around it—is often covered with scraps of paper, crayons, markers and sometimes blobs of Play-Doh.
For a long time (too long), we would pick up the aftermath of the girls’destruction creative pursuits while they ran into another room to spread the destruction play elsewhere.
Not. Any. More.
Things have gotten a lot tougher for the Gav girls lately as Mark and I, sick to death of constantly picking up after our children, are enforcing the rule of “you make the mess, you clean it up.”
I know, I know. We should have been doing this all along, but better late than never, right?
Over the weekend, we walked into the kitchen to find the table and floor littered with about 600 markers and pieces of papers. We called the girls back into the room and told them they needed to pick up the mess.
It took some cajoling, but they both finally gave in and started putting the markers back in their box and piling the papers together.
Or at least that’s what it looked like at first.
After watching for a few seconds, it became clear that Peanut was doing all the work while Loaf simply ran around the table, occasionally stooping down to touch her toes, but not actually picking anything up.
I looked at Mark.
“Do you see this? Do you see what she’s doing? She’s letting Peanut do all the work.”
“Yep,” he nodded.
“She’s going to be fantastically successful in Corporate America someday,” I added.
“Exactly. And she’ll get promoted while Peanut gets laid off.”
So there you go. Next time someone in your office takes all the credit for work you did, or spends the day goofing off online while everyone around him/her scrambles to meet deadlines, take a deep breath and remember that he/she was once a happy little child.
A happy little child who learned to manipulate the system early on and/or did not have terribly observant parents.
The world clearly has enough of these types of folks, so don’t worry. We’re doing our best to ensure there won’t be one more 20 years from now.
For a long time (too long), we would pick up the aftermath of the girls’
Not. Any. More.
Things have gotten a lot tougher for the Gav girls lately as Mark and I, sick to death of constantly picking up after our children, are enforcing the rule of “you make the mess, you clean it up.”
I know, I know. We should have been doing this all along, but better late than never, right?
Over the weekend, we walked into the kitchen to find the table and floor littered with about 600 markers and pieces of papers. We called the girls back into the room and told them they needed to pick up the mess.
It took some cajoling, but they both finally gave in and started putting the markers back in their box and piling the papers together.
Or at least that’s what it looked like at first.
After watching for a few seconds, it became clear that Peanut was doing all the work while Loaf simply ran around the table, occasionally stooping down to touch her toes, but not actually picking anything up.
I looked at Mark.
“Do you see this? Do you see what she’s doing? She’s letting Peanut do all the work.”
“Yep,” he nodded.
“She’s going to be fantastically successful in Corporate America someday,” I added.
“Exactly. And she’ll get promoted while Peanut gets laid off.”
So there you go. Next time someone in your office takes all the credit for work you did, or spends the day goofing off online while everyone around him/her scrambles to meet deadlines, take a deep breath and remember that he/she was once a happy little child.
A happy little child who learned to manipulate the system early on and/or did not have terribly observant parents.
The world clearly has enough of these types of folks, so don’t worry. We’re doing our best to ensure there won’t be one more 20 years from now.
Labels: Adventures in Parenting
posted by Kimberly at
8:13 PM
4 Comments:
Clever child, but much more clever parents. I'm working on the clean-your-own-mess thing too. It's so tempting to do it myself in half the time, but that's a losing long term strategy.
ha ha ha ha ha!
I think that is just too cute!
Have you been talking to my boss?
When Caelin and Kelsey have to clean up here I often discover Caelin doing all the work while Kelsey makes up work lists and checks off the items so Caelin doesn't miss anything.
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