Tough

Tough times don't last, tough people do, remember?

~ Gregory Peck

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Elizabeth is very tough — emotionally tough. Recently, we had to confront her about her time management and failure to prioritize in a way that might lead her to be successful in the future. As an example, playing with friends seems to have taken precedence over doing homework, practicing the saxophone, cleaning up after herself, etc. While this is hardly unusual for an 11-year-old, it did reach a point where we decided that more structure was going to be necessary.

We set her schedule for a week. Pretty much every minute from the time she got home from school until she went to bed was assigned some sort of task (homework — reading if she doesn't have homework, chores, taking care of her rabbit, etc.). As we discussed how to help her be more responsible (not waiting until 8:15 p.m. on Sunday night to do her homework, for example), she and I had the following exchange.

Michelle: Do you understand that it's important to put these kinds of things [homework assignments] before fun?

Elizabeth: I understand.

Michelle: Well, you don't seem very upset about the consequences. It makes me wonder if you think you've just been getting away with stuff for a long time and you're relieved the results aren't more harsh.

Elizabeth: Well, I'm not going to cry or anything about it!

Since making her cry wasn't my goal, I guess you could say it was win-win, though I doubt either one of us really felt that way.