07 January 2006

A Slippery Slope of Stealth and Sneakiness

My goal-setting for the year is a weak point that can easily be exploited.

Fran knows that I have set a goal of redoing the kids' bathroom--tiling the floor, tearing down wallpaper, painting a faux finish on the walls, a complete makeover. But, unfortunately, we already have a major project going 10 feet away--Fran is hand-painting butterflies and daisies on Kaitlyn's walls and windowseat. Two large projects going simultaneously would just be too much.

Somehow, in a moment of delirium, I decided that if I shoulder the burden of entertaining and caring for children, it would help expedite her work--so I can get to my projects before summer. So, for the past two evenings, I've bathed the kids, dressed them for bed, and cleaned the kitchen while Fran relaxes in sweats, drinks tea, closes the door, and cranks up some tunes while supposedly painting. Today, we're going to make a whole day of it--hopefully she'll finish.

What was I thinking?

This technique is called the "soft sell", but I'm not sure who's selling what to whom...seriously, if the roles were reversed, how motivated would I be to hurry up and finish?

3 comments:

Stormfilled said...

What you'll have to do is come up with some hilarious, fun-filled games that sounds like SO much fun no one would want to miss out on them ever. Then there'll be speedy butterflies. A few cries of things like 'Gosh Kaitlin, I had no idea you could do that! How clever you are, hell, I wish Mummy had seen that...' should do the trick.

Mike's Drumbeats said...

Oh, you soooo underestimate Fran and overestimate my acting abilities :).

There are worse things in life than to be saddled with "kid duty"--we're going for breakfast at Waffle House and a walk in the park...

gP said...

Hey! Thats 2 big rpojects. Good luck to you Mike!