Maxwell loves finding this patch of sunlight in the piano room to bask in.
Sunday night, Scott and I had a sit down serious chat with Grace about our expectations for her with her dog. To be fair, she does take care of him at night, and she's usually willing to do what we ask her to do for him, but over the last few weeks, more and more of her dog duties have fallen on ME. And as I told Scott last week, I can't decide if it's a good thing that I love Maxwell so much, or if it's a really, really bad thing -- because if I didn't care for this dog at all, I'd have no problem giving him the boot if Grace didn't step it up in her care-taking.
But the fact of the matter is, I do love the little pupper, and getting rid of him is not really an option now that he's a member of the family. SO. Scott and I had a little executive council before going in to talk to her on Sunday evening so that we could outline exactly what her specific responsibilities will be. Because simply telling her to "be more responsible" has been a little too vague to prompt any real actions.
We recognize she's a 14 year old child -- and she is in school during the day and has homework and other responsibilities, too -- so we came up with 4 main things she needs to do everyday to help take care of her pup. 1.) Get up at 7 every morning to let the dog out and feed him before getting herself ready for school; 2.) Do a sweep of the backyard after school for any dog poop that needs cleaning up; 3.) Feed him dinner; and 4.) Take him upstairs by 8 every night to put him to bed/hang out with her while she does her homework. I think that's pretty reasonable and doable. Right?? Here's how Day 1 went this week...
{7:05 AM Monday Morning}
GRACE: Mom
ME: What
GRACE: Can I slowly ease into waking up at 7
GRACE: Like can I have this week
ME: Fine
ME: You have to be up by 7:15 this week
ME: Next week it's 7
GRACE: 7:20
GRACE: Weekend 7:15
ME: You think you're going to wake up earlier on a weekend than a weekday?
ME: I'd say that's ludicrous
ME: And highly unlikely
ME: I'll give you 7:20 today and tomorrow
ME: Then the rest of the week is 7:15
ME: Next week will be 7
{7:20 AM Monday Morning}
ME: You need to be DOWNSTAIRS
ME: We're leaving
ME: And Maxwell thinks he's coming with us
GRACE: But I have stuff to do UPSTAIRS
ME: That's why you need to get up earlier
ME: That's the whole point
ME: Take care of your puppy first
ME: Then do your stuff
ME: Open your door so he can come in
So, here we are on Day 3, and she hasn't gotten up on time once and done what she needs to do; I don't think any backyard sweeping has happened; I think she got his food ready for dinner last night; and she's tried to bring him up every night at 8, but he doesn't always want to go -- I'm his new favorite snuggle buddy. Haha. Scott and I figure we'll give her this week to "ease" into things, but starting next week, we're going hardcore. If she can't step it on up, she's going back to the dark ages of no cell phone until she can prove we can trust her. Hopefully, it won't come to that. ;)
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