I stood by the sink, nostrils flaring, steam coming out of my ears.
The pleas to clean up after themselves had gone on deaf ears once again.
Telling and begging were not working.
And I was frustrated.
As I stood there looking at those pile of dishes the words that I had told so many families I’ve coached, came back to whisper in my ear. “You are frustrated because the boundaries you are trying to set are not being honored.”
Hmmm...why are the boundaries I have set not being honored? Because the results had been, up until now, for ME to end up cleaning up. There had been no consequences to those boundaries.
And THAT was on me. The truth was...I was frustrated because I had failed to follow through on all of the requests and threats that I was continually verbally assaulting my family with.
In a moment of clarity, I walked into the living room, took the television remote control in my hands. I shut off the t.v. and stood in front of it. I very calmly explained to my lovely family that I would be holding on to the remote and holding my position in front of the t.v. until the dishwasher got loaded and the kitchen sink was cleaned up.
5 minutes later the job was done and the t.v. was back on.
It was a small moment in time but a HUGE victory for me, in that moment to recognize my failure and course correct. And with that course correction all of the anger and frustration went away and we were able to move on with our day in peace.
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