"This girl is getting impossible." - As declared by beloved today morning
In a not so modest admission, let me admit that I am far less patient then my DH (in everything).
It's become difficult to clothe Figzy, because we are forever in the quest of 'something else'.
For a while, I would choose clothes for her, and she would only make choices and inform - "I want to wear a frock" or "I want to wear the dog (that's one of her favourite pajamas)". The change would be incorporated, and the dressing would get done.
Now, she just fudges, sometimes endlessly, with "not this" and "something else".
What takes this to a different level is her intention to wear the thing herself. While she is willing for it, she has not mastered the skill yet, and so things get stuck, the foot won't pass properly, an elastic will curl somewhere and the whole pajama would get stuck somewhere, and then she can't pull it up.
But none of us dare help her! She would just take the whole thing out and blast out crying. It is really driving me nuts.
Every evening, the wearing of clothes after her bath is a multi-stage event. And I have a prayer on the inside of my lips that it does not lead to another meltdown.
I have always felt that she was spirited, feisty and independent, and I have never been sad for it, but her abject refusal to let us help her in dressing herself is really a trial.
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Now's the time for some neighbourly fun.
Our floor has four flats. Our flat is adjacent to the elevator. Two flats are adjacent to the staircases.
Every day, the waste is collected from the apartments around 10:30 a.m. Most people just give the trash when the person arrives, and then there are people like us where because no one is home to give the trash, we keep our basket outside for the person to empty, and every evening, we bring the basket inside.
One of the staircase flats is inhabited by an elderly couple. They are amiable, and both of them stay at home. However, they have taken up the practice of stashing their trash on our corner. And not just one basket, there can be as many six-seven ugly black bags on our side of the door!
Their logic is that if they keep it outside their door, it does not "look good", and then the stairs are also there, while our corner is convenient. They stay at home, and can hand over the trash when the collection people come, but they find it more convenient to place their trash next to our door, since our corner is labelled 'public' in their eyes.
I have indirectly hinted that they should not do so, but the practice continues. It got to me when another neighbour put his trash on our side of the door last week.
I have wanted to be non-confrontational. The trash guy recently casually asked my cleaning lady about the large amount of trash I was keeping out, and I realized that I had to do something.
Saturday afternoon, I found a full plastic trash can, and a discarded laundry bag besides two other not-ours black bags on our door. (Since the trash is collected only once in the day, if you keep something on my door at noon, it will be there all day, all night and would disappear only the next day. Gross!)
I calmly lifted the trash can, and the disposed laundry bag, and placed them in an even more "public" area. I put the stuff in the elevator and sent the goods to an upper floor. To my utter amusement, the stuff went up and down all day after that in the lift (every time someone used it).
There wasn't anything of note on our door for the next couple of days. I did find an alien bag again yesterday, but I do know what to do with the bags from now on - a more public placement, that is.
What would you have done if you were in my place?
This is how they test the limits, by pushing them. We pick the clothes together in the evening, to cut the fussing in the morning. Most of the times it works. Sometimes, less so. But it gets better, as with everything. Mostly because some other issue gains more importance. :-)
ReplyDeleteCongratulations for handling the trash situation so gracefully. I would have gone for the most obvious, trashy approach, so to say, with finger pointing and discussion having approach. Most annoying, and less productive as well. Yours is quite brilliantly passive-aggressive, I envy you for it. :-)
My neighbor would give a selection of pre-approved outfits to her boys and let them choose. Then they would feel like they were choosing, but she was in total control. Not sure how to help with the "I'll do it myself" issue...except maybe a time limit? Figzy can try for 5 minutes, and then Mommy will help or Figzy gets 3 attempts and then it's Daddy's turn?
ReplyDeleteI would probably have been confrontational with your neighbors - I would have knocked on doors and said "I'm not sure who's doing it, so I'm going to talk to everyone, but if you're putting trash by our door, please stop. We only do it because we're not home for trash collection - it's not a dropping off spot. No offense meant - and I'm not accusing. We just don't want a pile of stuff by our door. Thanks!"
I actually had to confront our neighbors about their dogs running in our yard - the dogs were getting a bit possessive, and my daughter was a little scared of them. It sort of ruined relations, but the dogs are out of the yard, and my husband didn't call the police on them, so I call it a win.
We have an app on the phone that has a timer specifically for putting the pj on. But also e don't have a pj selection as such, children wear the same one for a few days then change to a new one. We do have a similar thing with nappies though as we use cloth and some prints are favoured over others! Thankfully Oliver is dry most nights and we can reuse his favourite till an accident happens and we have to wash it! Maybe boys are different though, we'll see how it goes with Martina!
ReplyDeleteWell done on being so graceful with the trash bags. I probably would have placed the bags (yours) beside the elderly couple door. Then the other neighbours! Are the bags identifiable? Probably not, but if so then the idea of the lift is fab!!
Loved your response to the trash. ;) your old pal jacksmom621
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