The kids called a “family meeting” two Sundays ago. Funny for two reasons:
1. We are not the “family meeting” kind of family. I don’t know that we have ever had one. Until recently, of course.
2. They all four were in on it. Marched around shouting “family meeting! in the living room!”
Anyhow, they had all four been upstairs concocting a plan to swap bedrooms, share rooms, and in the process create a “hang out” space up there for the four of them. They had drawings and floor plans drawn out on graph paper. After much family discussion, and a little weird “Huxtable-ness”, we decided that we would give them one week to prove that they could get along well enough to share bedrooms. You see, in our house there is a lot of shouting about so-and-so being in my room and won’t get out and yes, I asked nice and quit touching my stuff, etc.
We passed the one week mark last Sunday and their behavior had not been up to snuff. Today was two weeks, and against my better judgment, I helped them do all the swapping. Owen and I did the bunk/loft bed tear down and relocation. According to Avery they are going to “clean their room up each evening”. Pffffft.
After about 10 minutes Avery came out of her room, that she now shares with Erin, and said she wasn’t going back in there because Erin was being bossy. Really?
I should go back and say that before we moved a single thing I drew up a contract that we all signed with the rules clearly spelled out.
1. No changing back until February 28, 2012. (Six months seemed fair to me.)
2. If a friend is over, you and your friend can use the hang out room. Everyone has access to their shared bedroom at all times.
We all signed it, and then it was done. We even shook on it.
So there it is. Ethan and Owen have been yelled at 50 times in the last 30 minutes to zip it and go to sleep. It was a huge mistake. But it took like 4 hours and I refuse to change back until the 6 months is up. For philosophical reasons.
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