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Don't tell me what to do!

Just to prove they do smile...
We definitely have almost teenagers in the house and combine that with a 50+ year old man with OCD tendencies and I seem to spend half my life at the moment mediating between them all. It's still not too bad with Izzy, but Abi has her moments and wants to push against us and life life the way she wants to, not the way we think she should. Now lets e honest, at this stage we are talking about us thinking her clothes should live in the wardrobe, and her thinking they are fine on the floor / sideboard / washing basket. My view is rapidly becoming one of 'there are bigger battles we will have to fight,is this really one we want to fall out over?'. Glenn on the other hand is adamant that she needs to toe the line and do as she is told... now!

Obviously it is my way to read various books and articles about it and then discuss the situation rationally. So far this is working well with Abi - we've had a number of chats about it this weekend and she responded positively, sending me a very funny video from TikTok which basically summed it up as 'if I choose to do something responsible it makes me feel good. If you make me do exactly the same thing, it makes me mad!' This would be perfect except for the fact if I wait for her to do the things I think she ought to do without being asked, we'd never see her bedroom or bathroom floor again! Glenn refuses to discuss any of this and insists they should do as they are told until they leave home. I can see this will end in tears (mine now doubt!). My view is that we are no longer in a place where they are of an age that we can tell them what to do and expect them to comply simply because we said so. They have their own views now and so we can only provide them with the guide-rails, support them in what they do, be there to advise where possible and pick up the pieces without judgement when it goes wrong.

This week has mostly been about the rain - it has poured in biblical quantities all week and into the weekend. This, and the fact that we have the decorators in, is not adding to Glenn's general bad mood. Thank goodness he has the rugby world cup to focus on! The decorators are driving him nuts due to their pace and haphazard methods of prioritising their work. Instead of getting one room done from start to finish, they've started all the rooms they are doing and then leave them (very tidily it has to be said) in various states of completion. Currently they have managed to finish the study and playroom (the two least used rooms in his eyes, although important in mine), while our bedroom is unusable and the kitchen has been left half stripped back over the weekend with bits of yellow masking tape everywhere which only serve to draw his attention to the fact that everything is in the wrong place! Add to this the fact that it's all a bit dusty and you can just imagine the mood. I have poinmted out it only happens once every 5 years and our spare bedroom isn't the worst place in the word to camp out, but I might as well be talking to a brick wall. Just think how pleased we will all be to get back into a sense of order again.

Short week this week and then Glenn and I are off to Ypres for a few days away together (hopefully not in the rain). I can't wait - it's just what I need and I'm looking forward to seeing the museum and everything this time given last time we only glanced through and didn't make it inside. We are taking the new car (yes, another new car) on it's first road trip, we have a beautiful looking apartment booked and I have lot's of books to read - only 4 days to go!!

... even when I'm in the picture!


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