Short detour: I started off college life in the dorms. I was assigned a roommate that I ended up not being able to tolerate. If she wanted something, instead of asking, she whined. If her checking account got below $700, she would call her parents and yell. She would call her mother stupid and a b***ch if she said no. She was on her third new car, having totaled her other two, all provided by her family. She was a political science major that had her boyfriend write her papers. She as going to be a lawyer, but did not want to go to law school. The way she treated people was appalling, and I could not believe there was an actual alive human being that acted the way she did. She was an entitled, spoiled, materialistic brat.

Today was the day I designated for cleaning up the room. Jay does a pretty good job, and today was no different. He’s not really good at where he puts things, but when I say it is time to pick things up, he start shoving toys in whatever he can find to shove them in. For a two year old, that is fine. If I point to his boots and ask him where they go, he will pick them up and put them in the closet with the other shoes. At bedtime tonight, he got a puzzle out and when I told him it was time to put it away, he put it back where he got it. That was really good for him.

Ada is a different story. At her age, she has the ability to put her toys away. I don’t expect her to be able to do a great job at organizing, so I went in the room with them because I wanted to help re-organize a bit and to fix the above mentioned shelf issue. Ada was given her options on her responsibilities: pick all the blocks up and put them back into their storage container or find all the books and stack them in a pile. Instead, she chose to refuse to do anything. And then she chose to throw a fit and whine. Then she chose to demand that I do it. Then she chose to break something. All I could see was a version of my past roommate. As a consequence, Ada lost her toy privileges for Christmas. She has been informed that if she cannot appreciate the ones that she has by taking care good care of them, she doesn’t get any new ones. And I am following through.

Before I get the Aww Poor Child routine, listen to this: Ada isn’t poor. That’s part of the problem. She isn’t appreciating what she has because she doesn’t really go without. She thinks that anything can be replaced by going to the store. There are too many spoiled, whining, entitled brats in this world. My child is not going to be one of them. All of the toys she gets for Christmas will be confiscated until she has proven that she can take care of them. I’d rather her learn the lesson when she is four than when she is an adult and most of the world cannot stand being around her.

And if you think I’m being too tough, guess what? Life is tough and being a parent is hard. Is it easier for me to just pick up their things? Yes. Is it easier to just give her toys and say, “don’t do it again” so I don’t have to listen to her whine and cry? Yes. What will she have learned from that?

*I caved and got the kids a snowman that lights up for outside decoration. It is my very first, outside holiday decoration I have ever purchased^**.The snowman was cheap, and made just for his price point. His extremities fall off merely by looking at it funny. He came with u-shaped spikes to keep it hooked to the ground. Not intended for leg use.

**I’m not too thrilled about decorating for anything other than Halloween. Christmas was a time when I packed Halloween away. This is a monumental event for me.