At My Wit's End!

The last few weeks I have been struggling with Miss Shelby to pick up AND put away her things. After much screaming and carrying on, I will find everything she was to put away at the bottom of the stair steps. I seriously think she holds out to see exactly how loud I can yell or if I can damage my vocal cords. I almost did not too long ago. My throat hurt after THAT display of calmness! All of this is particularly frustrating because the girl has developed a need to organize and perfectionize (is that even a word?) everything in her room. But only in her room. She could care less if the rest of my house looks like it threw up everything she owns! Not to compare children but Morgan seems to get a little disturbed when mommy loses her mind. Ever since the night I hurt my throat screaming and my hand from punching the closet door (figured better the door than the children) to get their attention (didn't work), she is willing to get up and pick up when she is told. As we approach summer vacation, I have to figure this out or we may not survive. So what to do? This morning I told Shelby I was going to pay Morgan to carry all of her stuff up to her room and dump it in the middle of the floor. She can't go too long having things out of place in there. Will this work? We shall see. We had our first opportunity this afternoon. I told Shelby to put away all her Barbie movies she lined up across the kitchen floor to show Nate's secretary and pick up the stuff off the stairs (that she was to do before bed LAST NIGHT!) before she went to her room for quiet time or a nap. When I came down from Morgan's room she had not done any of it. So when Morgan woke up, she made a little money!