Am I Too Hard on Her?

My daughter has been increasingly forgetful. It is down right frustrating and sometimes infuriating.

Last year she was on a swim team at the local health club and she was constantly forgetting her suit or goggles, but she really didn't worry too much and most of the time she didn't even bother to tell me that she had left anything behind. At the health club their really were not a lot of kids that used the lockers other those on the team, so here stuff was usually still in the locker she used or worst case scenario, in lost and found.

This year she is on a different team. This team practices at the city pool, there are no lockers and there are just scads of kids in and out of there several times a day. This team also goes to a lot more meets. Last week my kid topped herself, she misplaced her goggles, swim cap, team suit, warm up top and bottoms, and a gigantic beach towel. It turned out that the warm ups and towel had made it into the car, but nothing else. Luckily her coach stays to the very end and got her suit and goggles back to her, but he didn't realize her cap was there too. She got a nice long lecture from both mom and dad about it and she promised to work harder at not forgetting any thing and to be pleasant about mom hounding her about weather or not she had ALL of her stuff every day after practice.

Today, I popped into the 'locker' room to tell her to speed it up a bit and saw that all her stuff was there on the bench, most of it in her bag. 10-15 min. later she shows up and I ask her if she had all her stuff, "Yes, it's all in my bag". -K- we go home to get finished packing for the meet this weekend. She shows up in the kitchen where I'm finishing making some snacks for this weekend, "I forgot my glasses." -K-, we'll go get them after I'm done here. Ten minutes later... "I forgot my goggles.... and my cap.... well, actually 2 pairs of goggles and my cap." So, today she lost 2 pairs of goggles, a cap and her glasses (she's a Mr. Magoo without them, how she forgot them, I don't know). I went back to the pool, by myself so that I wouldn't ring her little neck, and the only thing I found were her glasses (thankfully) and two hair elastics.

So now I'm feeling very irritated to say the least. I have a lot to accomplish by 2:30 so that we are ready to leave for the meet and get there at a reasonable time. I'm also irritated because we don't have a lot of money to keep replacing stuff. Really, we don't have the money to be going to all the meets, but it is her only sport and it is good for her, so we do it any way.

Punishment is definitely in order, but what. Do we skip the meet, do I make her write lines, what do I do to make her really make sure she doesn't keep forgetting her stuff? I decided on menial, gross labor. Latrine Duty. For 4 weeks. And every time she forgets an item she get another week added on. Her duties are to scrub the floor, the shower, the toilet, the sink, tidy anything that stays on the counter, and take out the trash. She has to do this every week before we leave for the meet. I made her do it today... She is already asking if there is any way she can get out of doing it. NOPE.

Am I too hard on her? Does the punishment fit the 'crime'? Being a good mom is hard, sometimes you just don't know if you are doing the right thing.

M.I.A.

This girl right here has been keeping me so dang busy I haven't had much time to myself. As soon as I sit down in the evening I'm out, my brain quits functioning and the only sensible thing to do is to go to bed.

It doesn't phase her a bit. She gets to catch up on her beauty sleep on the way to and from the meets. This past weekend we were in the Bitterroot valley at her first swim meet with this team and this division (I really don't know what division we are in... or if that is even the right word, so whatever). It was so much fun for her and really not too bad for us parents either. Most of the families camp out at the pool in tents and RVs and the kids get to run free and get to know each other. This is pretty cool since we will be competing against almost all the same teams at all the meets we go to. Since all the meets are in Montana it gives us a chance to see more of the state and that is pretty cool all by itself. We are meeting some new people, and my kid is getting a healthy taste of friendly competition. I only have good things to say about this division (or whatever) of swimming.... I should really figure out what the 'whatever' is.

The kids on the team are really supportive and encouraging to each other. The longer you are on the team the more like a family every one becomes. My only complaint is with some of the teens need to learn how to act appropriately around the littles... geeze, around every one would be nice. And yes, the 2 on the far right will be cropped; parents were taking these photos, what were they thinking?

These girls, will stand in the shower talking for forever if no mom comes in and tells them to get a move on.... about 16 times. But they are so cute together it is hard to stay mad at them. They get to play card games and stuff in between their events... it's like a beach/slumber party.

My kid swam 4 events on Saturday and landed in the top 12 in three of her events, which means she got to swim in the finals on Sunday. She placed 4th in her relay swim (there were only 4, teams, but 4th is nice to hear) and 10th in her other 2 events. Not a bad start to the season, and it will be fun to see her progress through the summer.

My weeks seem jam packed with chlorine, laundry, packing the camper, unpacking the camper, laundry, pop up the camper, fold up the camper, laundry, hunting down misplaced suits, goggles, caps and God only knows what else. But it really is mostly fun, the weeks just go by so fast, it is hard to stay on top of keeping the house clean and the garden weeded, but so far so good. I just gotta keep on truckin'.

Busy, busy...

I haven't been around much, in case you haven't noticed. Past couple weeks we've been busy with projects around the house and my daughter started swim team for the summer, and her first meet is tomorrow, so we've been getting the camper ready and trying to remember how to set every thing up again. With summer being only about 3 months long this camping business is forgotten quickly.

I also started to develop some nasty headaches recently and my eyes were just killing me. So I went to the eye doctor.... I need bifocals... Nothing says 'spring chicken' like bifocals. I'll be waiting another 2 weeks before I get them, so I don't know how much blogging I'll be doing, reading really hurts my eyeballs.

I hope to post some stuff about the swim meet, this is such a great team. Every one in it is so nice and friendly, all the older kids helping the younger kids and every one is just having a great time. So we will be hangin' at the cement pond this weekend, it should be fun!

Hope to be posting again in a few days. Have a great weekend!