Weekend memory lapse and lack of responsibility

 Jenna’s room was not the neatest we lived in our first house but at least she did know where things were for the most part.  Over in West Valley I think she’s become less responsible with every passing year.  Puberty has certainly not made things easier.  She flies off the handle at every little suggestion.

 I’ve been working on getting her to accept responsibility. Pick up after herself.  Get ready on time. I’ve used rewards.  I’ve taken away privileges.  I’ve been nice.  I’ve been ornery.  Nothing has seemed to work.

Roland worked only half a day on Friday and thus just happened to pick us up after Jenna got out of school. Afterwards we ran errands and went shopping and did not return to the house until after 6:00.

Before Jenna exited the car I told her to be sure and grab her backpack.  I specifically remember telling her to get it now so that it wasn’t left in the car when dad went to work on Monday.  Of course almost every child thinks he or she knows better than the parent and Jenna is no exception.  She said she would get it later.

On Saturday before Roland went to work, I told Jenna that she should grab her backpack.  I told her that she could use it to tote the origami Santas she wanted to pass out.  Of course she didn’t.

Yesterday I told her to bring me one of her papers so that I could mark it off.  She didn’t.  If she had she would have eventually looked in the car for her backpack – which by then I had also forgotten about. 

This morning it felt wrong to say, “I told you so” when she was already crying as she scrambled to find her backpack and reminded herself of where it was.  I did my best to comfort her.  I tried to do my best.  Perhaps it wasn’t my best.  I was thinking that she should have listened to me.  I was thinking, “I hope this will help her to learn”

I have my own issues though.  After closing the door I realized that I’d forgotten my cell phone.  We didn’t have time for me to get it – especially since I had also forgotten my keys.  How could I have forgotten my keys?  Hadn’t I trained myself to return it to my backpack the minute I came home from church?  Apparently not.

We do get to the bus stop at approximately the same time each day.  Sometimes the bus is early we have missed our regular bus at least three times now.  We have been fortunate enough to catch the other route – which will run on the south side only after December 8^th.

After the 8^th the route we like to take will run every 15 minutes – which is a lot better than every 30. I don’t know if that will make a difference on how soon she gets ready.  I’m hoping she will make a better effort to be ready on time.

I hope that both of us will be prepared with all things necessary.  The biggest one would be prayer – which I suspect we’ll have to start just a little earlier.