Anyone Need Their Floors Mopped?

February 3, 2012January 16, 2021 Guest Submitted Post

Bitty is your man, as long as you don’t mind puddles all over the floor. We have one of those Swiffer Wet-Jets that spray and then you mop. He LOVES the spray.

He got the idea from one of his books (he likes to act out scenes from his books, not entire sequences but one little snippet repeated over and over and over). This time, it was a mopping scene.

He grabbed the mop from the closet and went to work. At first, I was happy to let him. Who am I to argue with a child who wants to mop?

But as I heard him spraying over and over, and realized he was going to use up the entire bottle of cleaning spray if I didn’t put a stop to it, I told him “Good job, ‘Bitty,’ all done with the mop.” He ignored me and kept on, leaving big puddles in his wake as he was more interested in spraying than actually mopping up.

I took the mop away.

He went ballistic.

I had to hide the mop in the garage to keep it away from him. And then stand guard by the door to the garage while he raged on about the mop and tried to forcibly move me away from the door. No attempts to redirect worked. He eventually started to settle down and I went on to other things. As soon as he figured the coast was clear, he snuck into the garage and the next thing I knew, there’s that spraying sound again!

Bitty – 1, Mama – 0

I put the mop outside on the back porch. He can’t open that door so I didn’t have to stand guard. He went ballistic again.

After a while, seeing that I was not going to give in, he came up with Plan B.

Plan B involved throwing his sippy cup around the kitchen in an attempt to leave little drops of chocolate milk all over the floor.

Little drops that would need to be… wait for it… mopped up.

Which would force me to bring the mop back in, right?

Ah, I’m impressed with your logic, Bitty. Impressed, but not fooled ;).

Instead of going for the mop, I grabbed a paper towel and started wiping up the spilled milk. (Well, first I tried to get HIM to wipe it up but you can imagine how that went over *snort*)

Oh, he was not impressed. He grabbed my hands trying to force me to stop, shouting, “No NA-KIN, NOOOO NA-KIIIIIINN!” (no napkin).

The mop spent the night outside. As I type this, it has been brought back in but is hiding in the garage. Add this to the list of chores that must be done when Bitty is either at school or asleep (also on the list – laundry because he is forever turning the washer off mid-wash).

I know his mile-wide stubborn streak came from ME, so I guess I have no one to blame but myself… But at least that makes me a somewhat even match for his stubborn self, right? (Oh, who am I kidding?) ;).