Nature versus Nurture

My daughter's room is a mess. I know, that doesn't make her unique. My room is a mess, too, and there are messy rooms all over the world. Tomorrow is a big day for my daughter's dirty room. It's a make it or break it day.

A day or two before Thanksgiving, I told her to get her room cleaned because her cousins would be coming over in a couple days. She became angry with me because I didn't give her enough notice to clean her room. After all, she reasoned, her room is a disaster. It takes a long time to clean a disaster zone.

So her cousins came, and waded through the clothes and books and toys and paper and God-only-knows what else in her room and they all had a great time. No one was lost.

On or about December 1, I asked her how long she thought it would take to get her room clean. She thought about it and answered, "two weeks."

So, I gave her until the 19th to get her room clean. I promised no nagging, no yelling, no pressure. Her dad and I have reminded her, but I think we have done a pretty good job refraining from nagging. But, if her room isn't clean tomorrow, all bets are off... and I don't have to have a house full of kids because her cousins won't be allowed to sleep in there.

Will she do it? I really don't know. She has been working at it steadily for a while, but her progress seems to have stalled. It's as if she is unable to tell the difference between garbage anything else.