But it ain't my Christmas naughty and nice list. It is my list of things I need to do to prepare to leave my house. I have written about three pages of notes so far and I'm not leaving until tomorrow!
I should be getting ready to run errands, cleaning the house, or packing...or something productive, but I just had to let you in on a little of my craziness.
We are going on an overnight trip to the Catalyst conference and my mother-in-law is coming to stay with the kids. We will be gone less than 48 hours, but leaving my kids on a school week ratchets the stress of preparation up by about 50%.
I have to make sure they sleep and dress appropriately, finish their homework, get to school on time, etc. It is so much easier when I can just leave them to hang around the house, doing whatever, wearing whatever, and decide to just get their sleeping and eating back on track when I get home.
Now, don't get me wrong. My mother-in-law does a great job with them, but my kids can sometimes play her like a fiddle. She is the grandmother and she is laid-back to boot, so they take full advantage of her kindness. They try to go to bed late, talk her into snacks, and all other kinds of things they'd never get away with if we were home.
On top of that, we have things that have to be explained about
staying at our house, like how to use the remote control, how to get
signed onto our wi-fi, where first aid supplies are, etc.. I don't know about you, but there is
nothing more frustrating than staying at someone's house and not being
able to figure out how to turn on the tv! At one point, my sister had 4
different remotes for her television - one was the
satellite remote, one was the tv remote, one was the surround sound,
and the other was the DVD player. You had to use them in the proper
order, using the appropriate buttons to activate the remote itself,
etc. I don't know how many times I would attempt to watch tv at their
house and after 15 minutes, give up. We don't have 4 remotes,
just 1. But because we have an internet television and our remote is a
universal remote that can be used for almost any axillary
device you plug into your television, our remote looks like part
remote/part game controller/part control panel for a space shuttle. I
still don't know what all the buttons do!
AND On top of that, our days are super structured. My kids sort of expect things to happen the way they are used to having things happen. If things get out of sync, they get extra squirrely! But trying to explain how we do things is so time consuming and often sounds a little crazy!
Even as I type some of the things we do, I have to laugh at myself. I remember growing up and I had pet peeves about the way things were done around my parent's house. I know I thought to myself, "When I have my own house, this will not happen!". I have solved many of those problems, but have created others.
Case-in-point:
When I was a kid, my mom would always complain about having to wash so many glasses and how she couldn't understand why we always got another glass every time we got a drink. BUT, all the glasses in my parents house looked alike. So, we would get a glass, use it, and then put it in a place that we'd remember where to find it - like the back right corner of the counter by the sink or on the corner of the microwave. The problem was that my mother didn't like dirty dishes sitting around, so she'd swoop in like a ninja and put your carefully placed glass in the sink, forcing you to get another one, thus forcing her to complain about you dirtying another glass. My remedy? Each person in my family has a particular glass for them. That way, the glass can be rinsed out, placed by the sink, and used over, until I do dishes. The same is true with their milk cups (which they use immediately upon waking every morning and returning home from school, with just the right amount of chocolate added - like I said, my kids are neurotically structured). Because their milk cups get used so often, but they can't be set on the counter, because milk doesn't rinse out as well, we put the empty cups back in the fridge to use over until I do dishes. The new problem that results? I also don't like dirty dishes sitting around, so those glasses on the counter have to sequestered to the back edge of the counter. If they are just sitting on the counter, willy-nilly, it drives me bonkers. If they are not rinsed out or they leave a ring on the counter, it drives me bonkers. When the empty milk cups get knocked over or are in the way in the fridge, it drives me bonkers. If the kids don't put their milk cups promptly back in the fridge, it drives me bonkers. Needless to say, it is not a perfect system. But I have conquered the original problem, so I can have some excitement over that little victory.
When I explain things like this to my mother-in-law or other things like it - and there are many, many more - I know she's thinking we're a bit absurd!
So, what about you? Are there things that you do at your house that you think others would think is pretty crazy?
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