Responsibility anyone? Anyone?

At what point does a child take responsibility for their bedtime (or anything for that matter?) My girls are 10 and 13. They have experienced what happens when they stay up late, and have to get up early the following morning. Yet they continue to dilly-dally at bedtime, for which I have ZERO patience. I suppose if mornings went more smoothly, I'd have a little more tolerance for the evening shenanigans. Oh brother. Who am I kidding? I look longingly at my bed around 6:30 p.m., and it's a fight to stay awake from that point forward. Ugh. It's every mom's curse.

So this morning was not only icky because the girls went to bed later than usual, but because it was the morning after a 3-day weekend. That's a morning just begging for trouble.

It started with Megan asking where her favorite lime green pants were. Now mind you, this was at 7:20 a.m., when she finally rolled out of bed and realized that pajamas weren't gonna cut it. Never mind that yours truly is supposed to be at work at 7:30 a.m.  Rant within a rant: If there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's that Mom's schedule means NOTHING. If one of THEM has to be at school early for a drama rehearsal or something, you better believe the entire family rallies around to make it happen.  If MOM has a morning commitment (like singing in the church choir on Sunday mornings), no one gives a royal rip!! And yes, I AM BITTER!!!

Okay, so Meg asks where those pants are, and I explain that I didn't get to that particular load of laundry the night before, but there are two other pairs of pants that are clean and ready for the wearing. She does NOT take this news well, and proceeds to blame me for all of her wardrobe woes.

Then Amanda comes asking about an article of clothing that she hasn't seen in a while, and expects me to know where it is.

Me:  How am I supposed to know? Did you look in your closet?

Amanda sarcastically:  Uh, yes.

Me:  Really.

Amanda with even more sarcasm:  Yes, and it would be NICE if I could wear it AGAIN someday.

I know I should have sent her back to her room to thoroughly search her closet after such a remark, but there was no time for that!! Besides, I now had a point to prove. 

I don't know about you, but when MY girls say they've "looked" in their room for something, and have come up empty handed, 9 times out of 10 it's because they haven't actually MOVED anything. They've roughly scanned the area with their eyes, and if it doesn't literally JUMP out at them, it's lost.

This reminds me of an episode from The Middle where everyone is yelling at the mom to stop what she's doing and come help them find something. And every time she yells back, "Move stuff around!!"  Can I get an "AMEN!!" from the moms out there?! Seriously people, MOVE STUFF AROUND!!! It's there, I promise you, but you HAVE to MOVE STUFF AROUND!!!

So this probably goes without saying, but I marched stomped into Amanda's bedroom closet, MOVED STUFF AROUND, and whataya know? There it was. BURN!!

I left from there to go wait in the car for my soon-to-be RESPONSIBLE {Oh Lord, let it be!} offspring, whom I love more than anything.

It's always good to type that last part out loud from time to time.