The Ferrous Scrolls

Today marked a turning point in my overall recovery.  Things came to a head in my household around the issue of whether or not to keep open bowls of cat food in the house.

I’ve been cooking more, cleaning more, and being slightly more assertive about making sure the others do their chores.  So the last thing I need is to give the rats, ants, and roaches that generally plague this area, an open invitation to free dinners.  Granted, rats who wander in don’t live long, but it only takes one pregnant roach to spark an infestation that would require more than my feline mini-platoon to combat.

…but as with most things, I must be wrong because it’s me.  A stranger on the street can tell them something, and it would mean more than if I say it.

Two weeks ago, the house was robbed, and Shai’s credit cards and a watch were stolen because I said the doors should be locked and the balcony bars closed when there is nobody up and awake to watch them.  Since I said the place should be secure, of course nobody listened because if I said it, it must automatically be wrong.  Shai gave me the speech about how because this is Israel, people don’t commit robberies in broad daylight, etc.

Well…

Now I’m saying that there shouldn’t be open bowls of food laying about the house when the cats are usually outside, and of course that has to be wrong.

…only at the point of us getting robbed, I was done.  I was done helping anybody in my sphere of influence to ignore reality for the sake of their ego.

D O N E.

So when Moon defiantly told me that she had replaced the cat food bowls in the livingroom, while I applaud her stubbornness and questioning everything, I told her that this is a case where she does not need to understand.  She needs to obey until she does.  When she has her own place, she is free to experiment and suffer the consequences on her own bill.

Shai is now in his “just following orders” but with a bratty attitude mode.  I used to care when he was like that.  I don’t anymore.  There will not be open bowls of food in my house in the summer.  Period.   If they persist, then they will find themselves without cats to feed.  I’ll relocate them to the park across the road, and take food there for them daily myself, if need be.

Yeah, I’m back.

Tags: attitude, children, family, home, recovery, respect, teenager