Now you see it, now you don't

Andrew's been slacking off of late. His room is starting to resemble a disaster area again. He justifies it to himself because of the imminence of school; the dire, to him, necessity of reading books again.

So of late I've been doing the random inspection of his room a little more often than usual. On Sunday an empty milk bottle appeared on the floor, along with the seemingly obligatory 3 bowls, 7 glasses and 4 empty coke cans. Words were exchanged and a reluctant promise to remove all the junk.

Some hours later a second inspection. All the crockery and glassware were gone but neither the cans nor the empty milk bottle aforesaid. More words, of a more imperative nature. Truculent defiance followed by a backdown (and I'm not talking me).

On Monday when I got home from work another random inspection. Would you believe it? That damn empty milk bottle was still there. Loud protestations that this wasn't the same bottle; it was a different one. I might have believed that had he at least made the effort to move the thing but it was in the same place, same orientation.

Tuesday. The milk bottle was still there. He was in the shower at the time of that inspection; the wooden door is all that saved me from a glare I'm sure he intended as lethal :-) More protestations that it was a different bottle. Uh huh. So I picked up the entire mess (this time it was 2 bowls, 2 glasses, a plate, a fork and 3 coke cans, oh and an empty milk bottle) and sneaked downstairs, quietly rinsed the permanent stuff and threw out all but the milk bottle.

When he emerged, weight of the world on his shoulders at the prospect of having to clean up his own mess, he was gratified to find it already done. I, of course, knew nothing about it. Nor did Mum!

So tonight I did the inspection again. Surprisingly, there was nothing in his room that oughtn't to have been there. So I waited until he was in the shower again and sneaked back upstairs to place that milk bottle in the exact same place, same orientation.

When he emerged a couple of minutes later he couldn't believe his eyes. And again, I knew nothing of the matter :-) Nor did Mum. He did the two bob watch routine for a few minutes and eventually subsided, after bringing it down and putting it into the rubbish bin. Once he'd closed his door I took the bottle out of the rubbish. I'm going to do the same trick tomorrow night. I'm sure that this time he'll make the effort to walk it out of the apartment and into the communal rubbish bins.

We shall see whether I make the effort to retrieve it to run the same trick Thursday!