ever since dss found out we are starting a table manners chart on july 1st and that he can eventually earn the privilege of eating a snack in the living room while we watch tv, he has made 1000% improvement! and we haven't even started the chart. i've seen him eat all kinds of things now and NOT make a mess. so he had the ability all along i guess, which i suspected he did and was just not trying. we will still start the chart tomorrow just to keep up the good work. and i am just going to start setting the table and if dh wants to pick up his plate and take it to his recliner, oh well.
on a side note: the lack of motivation....... we have been fighting him on cleaning his room for weeks. so last tuesday i finally told him that he had until saturday and if his room wasn't clean, i was going to clean it and he was going to have to just sit on his bed and watch me and that it could take me awhile to clean it up to my standards. well, it was obvious all week he would rather sit and do nothing while i cleaned than clean it himself and then get to do something fun on saturday. and so came saturday....... it took me THREE HOURS to clean his room. no joke. i found a whole garbage bag full of trash that i had NO IDEA was in there. socks in the toys bins (i kept telling him his socks had to be in his room somewhere....) i totally reorganized everything. (which i just did in january, cleaned it spotless. that time he "helped" but i did most of it. i let him off the hook on keeping it up because i had 2 nephews and a niece come over while he wasn't there and it got trashed. that wasn't his fault and i never had time to help him reorganize again.) ANYWAY, i told him his room is now subject to inspection by me with 15 minutes notice so he better not let it get so messy that he can't clean it in 15 minutes. i think it will stay clean this time. since he lives with us now he has a chore chart and is starting to learn a little more responsibility.
well, he'd been asking all day what was my best going to be on his room. we've been talking about doing our best. he wanted me to quit after 2 hours and i said i wasn't done. so at the end i said, "this is my best. i worked until the job was completely done. now, i don't expect your best to be the same as my best because i'm 26 and you are 8. but i know you can put your clothes away and put your toys back where you got them from." then i gave him HIS job which was to organize his art supplies since i'd bought an extra basket for them. we let him keep his art stuff on his side of the table in the kitchen and it was getting too piled up. he weeded out a lot of old paper and things. he then said he was done, but there was little bits of stuff all over the table and the floor. so i said, "okay. that's good. but what is one more thing you can do to make this job your best." he said, "wipe the table." i said, "that sounds great. why don't you get the dustbuster and you can just suck it up quickly and even get the floor around your chair." so he did that and then went all over the living room with the dustbuster sucking up little bits of stuff! then he went to my to-do list on the fridge and marked off "vacuum". ROFLOL
"But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever." Psalm 52:8
