“Have a vision. Be demanding.”
Colin Powell
Pip had chosen to do some ‘rip art’ in the living room the other day. Her process was to take different colours of construction paper, rip it up and lay it on the carpet in interesting ways. Fair enough. It looked like a lot of fun, and, who knows, she could be the next Jackson Pollock. (I wonder if he splattered as a child.) I had no problem with the ripped paper that covered the living room, but when PIp decided to move on to some horse play, (literally,) she left the scattered papers behind.
Lately, our family has been working really hard on cleaning up after one activity before we move on to the next. Big Daddy-O and I had been noticing that we were doing the majority of the picking up at the end of each day. So, I told Pip that before she started to groom her rocking horse, she had to clean up her mess-terpiece. (Not really, I think I called it ‘artwork.’)
She picked up perhaps two of the torn pieces, then went to groom Sparkle. “Um, Pip, there are several more pieces to pick up and put in the art cupboard.” Again, Pip made a half-hearted effort to clear away about a third of the paper, then she knelt beside her steed with a plastic brush in hand. I entered the living-room and looked at the floor. All I had to say was, “Honey,” (in that tone of voice I use when there’s a firm message to follow), and Pip started picking up the remainder of the paper. She was very calm as she turned to me and said,
“Mama, I’ve noticed you’ve been very demanding lately.”
