Well, maybe not a parent but someone to act like one. Someone to ask “Did you finish that? You know it was due today. You know you will be in trouble and hate yourself later.”
Norman Rockwell’s “Mother Spanking Her Child”
This is the lazy answer to my life long struggle with self-control. We were supposed to learn this as children and I apparently wasn’t listening. What my mom required of me came easily. I could make A’s without studying and keep up appearances without any work. No one caught me putting in less than half the effort I could have been. They were happy with my mediocre.
Now that life is real and no one is taking up the slack this giant hole of weakness is apparent to me everyday. Now that I am a parent and see what it will do to my children if I let them give me only half of their potential what good will come? If they see me giving half and giving up after a small effort what will they learn?
I pray earnestly they will learn much more than I did. I pray they will struggle less with self-control, at least with the everyday things like cleaning up their room. Maybe my hopes are too high but when did lowering expectations make anyone a better person?
I'm with you on this, Kenna! Somes people say it's amazing that a perfectionist like me struggles with this sort of thing, but I heard someone else knowingly call it being a "procrastinating perfectionist" :) haha :)
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