Mom's Helpful, Frequent Reminders

Folding laundry isn't so pretty in real life

Wet towels greeted me this morning. Rather, the sight and smell of them greeted me. Towels can't very well speak.

"Hang up your wet towels" is one of the hundreds of daily reminders I must hand out to my children. Yet, in spite of my helpful, frequent reminders, something they think of as nagging, I still find piles of wet towels.

What other helpful, frequent reminders must I give? Multiple times every single day?

• Clear your dishes.

• Clear all your dishes.

• Throw away the trash.

• Put the sofa back together.

• Put away your shoes.

• Cover your sneeze!

• Wash your face and hands.

• Make your bed.

• Make your bed for real.

• The cover needs to be neat, not tossed on like a wet towel!

• Put away your clothes.

• Your clothes don't go on the closet floor!

• Eat like a civilized person!

• Use soap over your entire body for your bath.

• The trash actually needs to land IN the trash can, not just near it!

• Don't destroy that thing!

• Wash your hands again.

• Don't forget your pet bunny.

• It's a nice day. Go out and play.

• Even if it's not a nice day, go out and play!

• Get some fresh air! You guys look sickly being inside.

• Use an inside voice! There's nothing wrong with my hearing.

• You can't tackle your sister the way you and your buddies tackle each other.

• For Pete's sake, QUIET DOWN!

• Help each other.

• The house can't contain your energy. Get outside and PLAY!

• Clean up your trails!

• Stop eating the string/paper/shirt...

• No, you can't have screens again.

• Don't slime the windows! Or the walls!

• Be civilized!

There's no end to the helpful, frequent reminding (nagging). It's exhausting saying the same things, or sorts of things, every single day, multiple times a day, for years on end. But it's also a mom's way of growing decent human beings who can function in society productively.

I'm sure one day, it all will click. By then, they'll be saying the same things to their kids. They might even misremember the amount of helpful, frequent reminding it took to get them to grow up...

Just like I misremember just how much my mom had to utilize helpful, frequent reminders for all of my siblings and me every single day for years on end before we grew up and out of the nagging phase.

Excuse me, that was the helpful, frequent reminder phase.