Not a stellar evening

Last night was not one I would like to repeat any time soon.

The A-man had a rugby practise after school, so I picked him up at my parents after work.  When we arrived home, nothing had been done with respect to the required kitchen clean up.  It was a mess, actually.  A few weeks back, during a family meeting about the chores not getting done, it was decided that I would not begin cooking dinner for the family until the kitchen was in a presentable state.

Well, I was hungry - and I had been really looking forward to the dinner I had planned for the night.  (Seafood medley on sticky rice...)  When the A-man finished changing out of his school uniform and came in to the kitchen to begin the work, I called down to S to remind him that he needed to come and help his brother with the clean up.

Up the stairs comes my little black rain cloud.  Fists tight, heavy breathing... "WHAT?," he demands.

I remind him that the kitchen needs to be cleaned up so that I can start dinner.  He becomes extremely frustrated because he "just wants to finish watching this ONE show."  (Let's not even get in to the fact that he's been home now for the better part of two hours and could have more than completed the task way before "this show" began.  The A-man offered a solution... he would be more than willing to do the entire kitchen clean up before dinner as long as S would agree to doing all of the clean up after the meal.  S said, "Fine" and started back downstairs. 
Before I would let him downstairs, however, I reminded him that this meant all of the table needed to be cleared, all of the dishes into the dishwasher, and all of the hand wash items needed to be washed, dried and put away in order for this task to be labelled 'done.' 

I received a very sarcastic "Yes, Mom.  I am aware of what will need to be done.  I am fine with that.  Now can I just go?!"

I had my doubts.  (Hindsight:  I should have not let these negoiations take place.)

The A-man did the kitchen clean up and I started dinner.  While dinner was cooking, S was on the telephone with two different friends.  (For the record, supper was very tasty.)

Once I finished eating, I reminded S that he was responsible for the entire post-dinner clean up.  I reminded him of what the various tasks were - again, I received an eye roll complete with a "Yes, Mom... I know this"

I went downstairs to tackle the evening.  Move forward to an hour and a half later.  I come up the stairs to check on the progress.  Let's just say there had not BEEN any progres.  Sure, the A-man's plate and S's plates were off the dinner table, but for some reason my plate remained on the table, along with the rice pot.  None of the dishes were done, none of the counters wiped off... nothing was done.  I went looking for S.  He was laying on his bed watching 'Grease' on his laptop.

And then it began.  Screaming, yelling... tears, even.  Apparently I only had children so that I would have built in slaves that are just around to do my bidding.  The front door was slammed...  Oh yeah - it was a GREAT night.

Sometimes I just hate that kid.

Not really hate him - but I really, really, REALLY hate the way that he behaves and reacts to things.  It took my threatening to not allow him on the school downhill skiing trip on Wednesday or the Ice Fishing Trip on Thursday for anything to get done.

The attitude stinks.  I am really grateful that I have the house to myself this evening.  It will be nice to have some quiet time.

I'm really at a loss of how to get through to this boy.