Messy Rooms and Broken Toes
Only in a few houses can a messy room led to a broken toe. My house has accomplished this feat with great accuracy. Let me paint the scene:
The time is 7am and my seven year old daughter can not find a sweater to wear to school. Of course, we have just ten minutes to get to the bus, and I have recently taken an oath to let her wear what she wants. Mentally I had a little bit of a debate; let her go without a sweater, be cold, and then come to me and tell me how right I was or go find a sweater, which I am sure is in her room, and make her wear it to school. I choose the latter.
So there I am in panic mode trying to get my daughter to the bus on time, when out of nowhere, something hard appears. Oh, and the sweater. Before I know it; bang, snap, pop!!! My toe is broken and I am shouting at the top of my lungs how I am going to throw away everything on her floor. Let's see her have a hard time finding a sweater when she has nothing else in her room.
There is the story. The interesting part is what happens when I tell others about what happened. In my house, the children are allowed to keep their room however they want. However, I will normally refuse to enter their room if it is a health hazard.
When I spoke of this rule for my household to another mom she told me something interesting. Her daughter has to clean up her room every Sunday. She says it will teach her to keep a clean house when she is an adult. She said otherwise her daughter will think "she can keep a house however she wants when she is an adult."
Isn't that part of being an adult? Keeping your house how you want? I ask in all honesty how many of us actually keep as clean as a house as we would like? This world would be a better place if we just learn to accept certain truths: messy rooms = broken toes = adult children who choose what they want and are happy about it.
Check this out:
I think the idea of letting your kids decide when and how to clean their room is great. People can come into my house and think that it is messy; in all honesty it isn't as prestine as it could be. There is always dirty laundry in the kitchen, clean dishes in the dish strainer, a sink full of dirty ones, sometimes there is stuff on the floor and our bedroom as well as Abbi's is sometimes hard to get through. We have furniture wall to wall and we collect stuff we probably do not need anymore, but it is our house and its cleaner then we thought it could be. I have a four year old who runs around and when I clean her room she says thank you, helps me with it, and then messes it up again. Not to mention she has a hard time keeping toys in her room cause she likes to bring them out into the living room and dining room to play with them, and thats okay, it is her house too. There is nothing wrong with letting your children learn when to clean up their own things. Abbi is just learning about cleaning up herself and shes learning that if she wants to keep her toys and not lose them or see them break she has to pick them up. As long as I never find a molding apple, melted chocolate or souring milk in her room-- which she isn't allowed to have in there, I think she will be just fine.
ReplyDeleteGood for you and making your house your home in your way!