I can be a bit of a nag about things. This bothered me for a long time because I thought it was a flaw in me.
Then, I saw an article stating that nagging is what you do when people don't listen the first time. That statement turned my perception around of how I saw my constant reminding/pleading/yelling for my family to get their chores done/put things away/clean up after themselves.
I am a nag. And here's an example of why:
If the dishwasher doesn't get emptied, it can't get loaded, so the sink fills up and I can't get kids drinks of water or scrub out the cast iron skillet, which I need to use to brown meat for taco cornbread muffins, which bug and stormie take for meals, so they don't have good lunch options, so they buy lunch for three times the price, spending money we can't afford (on our super-tight budget), so we can't save as much and we can't go on vacation.
If the laundry doesn't get rotated, it starts to smell and we have to run it again, which uses up time, soap and electricity, which raises our basic costs, so now we can't do the state fair.
I wish I was exaggerating, but we actually have that tight of a budget. And I've seen it spiral out of control, costing us hundreds in extra spending or (gah!) bank fees. All because one chore wasn't done in a timely manner.
See, I do a bit of kitchen magic. I use cooking as a way of maintaining our prosperity. And it works.
But the kitchen is small and needs to be kept clean and organized. The rest of the house, too. We schedule our lives closely, not out of a need for control, but out of a desire to take control.
See, we have goals and wants, and some resources, but little money. To be able to travel to Heathen Sumbels & Blots, Pagan festivals and gatherings... to do any of this, we have to make it work.
And we do. Often.
It takes feeding the family on less money. It takes scheduling things to get medical appointments done when we are already travelling to that city 200 miles from home. We have 15 minutes to get this done or we lose our window of opportunity. We have $5 to last us a week.
And we can do it. We *have* done it. We want this prize, we will Get. It. Done.
And I nag because I'm the big picture seer, the planner, the orchestrator who gleans knowledge and plans an entire week and squuezes pennies just so my kids can go to an event we would otherwise not be able to swing. Or scrimps for years so hubby can get a fishing license.
I am a benevolent dictator. I am a parent. I am a witch.
Let's do this.
