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:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

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Honestly, it sounds like they've got YOU trained, Scarlett. At the very least, I might insist we all sit down and have a serious discussion about attitudes (vs chores). Fwiw, when I saw my oldest kids (teens) exhibiting the attitudes you're seeing, I got furious (dc didn't know that), and turned over the ENTIRE running of the house to all 5 kids. I didn't do it in anger. I just thought through the whole thing and came up with a rough plan and sat all 5 down and we hashed it out together. They survived and I have good relationships with all of them now, as adults.

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You could simplify the bed issue by allowing them a bottom sheet and a sleeping bag. It takes about 5 seconds to pull the sleeping bag up over the bed every morning, and the bed is 'made'. That's what I did for my kids and it worked really well. Get cheap ones so you can throw them away when they get grungy. Hard to wash nice, thick sleeping bags.

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:grouphug: I'd be upset about the attitudes, too. Maybe it's time for a family meeting or something? And no one leaves the table until the problem is solved ... And a method of accountability is set up. Is something else going on, Scarlett, that's upsetting you? (No need to answer. Just thinking ...)

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I would just keep plugging away, doing the next thing, slowly and steadily. Forget about grade levels and being 'behind' - especially considering the ages of your kids right now. It's probably more productive to focus on the content and reestablishing routines and such, versus the more artificial things like grade levels and 'behind' (behind what???). Your plan sounds fine to me. Also, I don't think of all that time as 'lost'. I'm sure your kids learned all kinds of real-life things during that time. Their memories - good and bad - of that time period will be so rich and valuable to them when they're older. You might be surprised what kinds of peculiar things kids treasure from their pasts. One of my grown kids recently told me she had wonderful memories of my rousing them all out of their beds early in the morning, announcing that 'Today is a work day. We're doing X, Y, and Z, and to give us some extra energy for all those chores, I've bought some ice cream, etc.' (What the kids heard .... "No school today!!!' ) Enjoy your new apartment, explore the area, and take time to recover. Start the school back slowly. Ignore those voices screaming at you and robbing you of your joy. They'll calm down once they realize you aren't taking the bait. ;) :grouphug:

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This is what I would try. If that didn't work, I might set the traps where no neighbors could see them and trap cats, slowly, one at a time, and haul them off - to - somewhere. The only problem with this plan might be that the neighbor replaces the old cats with new cats. The situation does sound miserable. :grouphug:

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