When Pigs Fly

You may have noticed some interesting phenomenon (thank goodness for an online dictionary) this weekend, something along the lines of flying pigs and hell freezing over. Those are the only reasons I can think of that caused my son to clean his bedroom. This was a total surprise because he did it unbidden. I will freely admit that in the past I have bribed, blackmailed and even threatened bodily harm in order to get him to tidy his room, but all to no avail.  You can imagine my surprise when he came down and asked for a garbage bag. I was immediately suspicious, I thought maybe he was planning on doing away with his sister - I'm still nervous about that machete - but no, he wanted it because he was about to tackle his room. I'm sure glad I was sitting down when he told me that, I could have taken a nasty tumble when I passed out from shock.

Rob was delighted with this turn of events, and kept running downstairs to give me regular updates. Having got over the initial shock, I was trying to take advantage of an otherwise quiet afternoon and read a really good book. It really doesn't take much to make my husband happy, and the fact that his son was not only tidying his room but also cleaning out his sock & underwear drawer had him positively ecstatic.

I should have known that I hadn't fallen all the way down the rabbit hole, when afterwards my son approached me. "Mum, now that my room is clean" he began cautiously,  "How about I get an extra $2 allowance every week for keeping it clean". I knew it, the little bugger always has a hidden agenda. However I was prepared and had a quick response, "I'll increase your allowance" I said "Right after you pay me $2 for every week your room was untidy" That shut him down right quick. The secret to successful parenting, you have to think on your feet. I have to say, Rob is useless at that, if he is going to issue a threat he needs to script it first.  His very best was when he yelled at the kids "If you don't stop that I'm going to .. splutter, splutter .. I'd don't know what I'm going to do, but I'll do something".  That's the way to strike fear into their little hearts.

Anyway back to my entrepreneurial (and that was without the aid of the online dictionary) son, I swear that boy is going to head up the IMF one day.  He is always looking at ways to make a quick buck. He and his sister decided one day to draw pictures and sell them. My sister thought it was sweet and actually paid the little gold-diggers, setting us up nice & proper. When it was my turn to fork over the money, Grady asked me what I'd like him to draw. I told him I'd like a sunset picture. Ten minutes later he returns with a pencil sketch and tried to charge me a dollar. When I complained that it was no good as a sunset because it was in black and white, he didn't miss a beat, telling me that colour would cost me extra.

I'm really hoping that one day he will strike it rich, and keep his doting parents in the lifestyle to which they would like to become accustomed.