Love Notes

Self-portrait

What a beautiful day it is outside, but I have been telling my wonderful son that he will have to clean his room.  Why do I do this, I ask you?  I could go the easy route and just clean it myself but......... I don't want to!

I have enough to clean without having to pick up 1,000,000 legos that are smaller than my fingernail.  I have rules of engagement with my little gremlin, "You clean up this part and then I will come and help you clean the rest."  I think that is fair.  I get the same response every time in various forms.  Today it came in the form of 2 handwritten notes.  The first arrived folded into a little square, when I opened it and read it, this is what I saw.

Let me translate for you: "I want to be a stray".  He would rather be wandering alone in the wilderness than have to clean a little section of his room.  I told him that was fine if it is what he really wants but he has to clean his room before he goes.  Upstairs he went and after about 10 minutes he came down with another note for me.  This time the note was housed neatly in an envelope and included a pen so that I might put my answer to his question in writing.  I can feel your anticipation and curiosity.  I must first say that I am enamored by these little notes that he gives me.  These started when he was 3 years old and wouldn't speak when he was emotionally over the top.  We would ask him to tell us what happened or why he was pretending to be a box on the floor, but other than a few grunts here and there he just wouldn't say a word.  Finally, I told him that he didn't have to say it but he could draw about it or write it down.  That is the therapist in me coming out.  It worked, and ever since then I will get these notes that say what he is currently feeling, good or bad.  I love them!  OK, here is the little package that he gave me the second time.

As you can see, with the exception of the letter "C", he does pretty well with the letters and the spelling.  He included the pen so that I could write my answer in the little box at the bottom.  The other box is for my husband to give his answer to the question..."Can I go to the pound for kids?"  I said that indeed he could if he really needed to, but he would have to clean his room before he went.  Off he went, back up to his room.

So I have discovered that children of this age often suffer bouts of insanity.  They repeat the same task or  response to a situation and expect that the outcome will be different.  Max always reacts the same to being asked to clean is room and the outcome is always the same and his elation when the job is finally complete is always the same and his thoughts of the "wanting to be a stray" are always acknowledging it as a ploy to try to change the outcome.  I suppose this is what they do to test the boundaries of your conviction as a parent, or is it to make sure that you are not the one who is insane?

Here I sit, fighting the good fight.  I wait patiently for the moment that he decides that he doesn't want to be in his room any more.  I listen up the stairs and......right now I hear Blitzkrieg Bop by the Ramones.  I am now pausing to have a flashback moment.

OK, I am done.

To my own parents, I do not apologize for being a pain in the butt, but I will  say that I hope that I recovered from my own childhood insanity quickly.  Somehow, I am thinking this is not the case.