I may keep holding his toys hostage!

For the past couple of weeks, I have been on a cleaning/organizing frenzy.  Things started with the Master closet, and have slowly been spreading throughout the rest of the house.

Saturday, the kitchen and living room were a complete mess!  I couldn't take a step without stepping on some-sort of toy or a box that a toy came in.

 

I asked Jameson to help me pick up his toys.

 

No response.

 

I asked him again.

 

Again, no response.

 

I TOLD him to pick up his toys.

 

No response.

 

After a few minutes of this, I had enough!

 

I got the broom, and swept every single Lego, box, Transformer, and plastic sword into a pile and started loading them up into laundry baskets.

 

He never once even acknowledged what I was doing.

Right as I was about to scoop up the very last pile of random, single Lego's, my mother called.  During our conversation, I may have mentioned something about ME picking up all the toys, and since I was the one doing ALL of the cleaning, I would get to decide what to do with the toys.

Jameson must have heard that part of the conversation, so he picked up TWO teeny, tiny Lego's and put it in the laundry basket.

Then he started noticing that everything he had been playing with, was now buried in the full laundry baskets.

He then started rummaging through the laundry baskets, looking for his things.  It was at that time I stopped him and said:

"Ummm, if you didn't put anything INTO the laundry baskets, you will not be taking anything OUT of the laundry baskets!  Since I'M the one who cleaned everything up, everything in these baskets are now MINE!"

Needless to say, I immediately won the "Worst Mom of the Year" title!

I proceeded to tell him WHY his toys were now being held hostage, and since I was now the owner of them, I could put them anywhere I wanted to.  If he wanted to ever see anything in the laundry baskets again, he must WORK to get them back.  Oh, and he must work with a good attitude and have a big smile on his face.

So, for the rest of the morning, he washed every window and cleaned every baseboard and door frame in the house.

 

I may be keeping his toys held hostage for a WHILE!