Well, life has been busy round here so I’ve been quite neglectful…sorry! Anya had her 25th birthday–sorry, I mean her 10th. We had a few girls over for pool, pizza, and sleepover; they all seemed to have fun and I survived by drinking lots of wine. Seriously.
Anya is a handful these days. I’m not sure why–hormones, summer boredom, sibling rivalry, or just a combination of all three. All I get every fucking day is drama, tears, and “You’re so mean!” She is so disrespectful, especially to me and we’re having none of it. So…JP and I have decided that there are a number of contributing factors: OC disease, a side effect of living here in South OC, by the beach, where most of her friend’s parents make a whole lot more money than we do. They drive luxury cars (we drive a Maxda & a Toyota), they live in mini Mansions (we live in a 20 yr old home that we are thinking of dumping), we can’t buy her new clothes at Nordie’s, we don’t vaca in Hawaii (at least not in a long time), and we don’t have a Wii. So…
She’s also heavily influenced by TV–she loves Disney channel shows like The Suite Life (ugh)and Hannah Montana,(cute) and Nick shows like iCarly (clever) and True Jackson (she speaks with marbles in her mouth and the writing is terrible). Add to that America’s Next Top Model (questionable I know but I do love Miss Tyra and her messages), American Idol, well, the list goes on.
So JP and I are doing the Tough Love Project. We are making her EARN her TV by doing chores that she’s supposed to be doing anyway but always worms her way out of. Horrible, Terrible Cinderella Things like unloading the dishwasher, cleaning her room, doing her summer reading, and washing her face and brushing her teeth. (I know, Mom, don’t even go there with the bathwater story.) If she DOESN’T do these things, NO TV; and then only ONE hour. And only reading at bedtime…no more TV to fall asleep. 5th grade @ her school is going to be a bitch so she will need lots more sleep. She is not happy about this AT ALL.
Well, you can imagine how well this went over with her this evening…much tears and drama ensued. She’s couldn’t possibly clean her room without the TV on because it’s scary in her room all by herself; she couldn’t possibly wash face/brush teeth downstairs by herself without the TV on because (again), too scary; it goes on and on. We’re not sure how TV got so bonded with her psyche, but dammit, we are breaking that bond.
Lukas just looks at her and rolls his eyes. He says go ahead, mama, turn off my TV. I’ll just play with my Legos. Which of course just pisses her off even more. Sigh. Lukas looks at her and says what’s the big deal?
What indeed, baby…what indeed.
