Can I just tell you how very, very much I hate my children's room. The four oldest all share a room (there are only two bedrooms in our house), and I loathe that room with all of my being. I spent an entire day this weekend cleaning it out.....again. It was scary and gross. Two full bags of trash went out of there. Three full baskets of laundry blossomed and added themselves to the laundry mountain. It's like there's some unseen wind in our home which blows all debris into that room, where it then hides under beds and in corners.
It'd be so great to have done all that work and now have a great space for our family to enjoy, but because it's so great now- the kids are spending time in there and without ever constant vigilance (to be read:grumping at them) the stuff just begins to accumulate all over again. Right now in there waiting for me is a tea party, several baskets of play food, dress up clothes all over the floor, dress up shoes lined up against the wall, three bags-with who knows what inside them, and a box. There are some clothes under the youngest two girls' bed.
It looks like it's been weeks since I've vacuumed, despite it being two days. The four year old got into the 8 year old's bed, and took down the things from her bulletin board, took down her chalkboard, seems to have removed her knitting needles and stashed them somewhere. Took a piece of pottery Lucy (the 8 year old) made, stashed the lid for it somehwere. GRRRRrrrrrr....Looks like someone really needs help with boundaries, but I know in her mind it all just looks so neat and pretty and interesting. I also know that I cannot just camp in their room every time she's playing in there.
Bernadette (the 4 year old) loves playing tea party. So does Andrew (the 2 year old). But their ideas are vastly divergent of what makes tea party fun. Andrew will sit and take sips of his "tea" for only so long, before his boy toddlerhood explodes and he feels the need to throw all the cups and saucers. Obviously there arises the need to keep the door closed, so Bernadette can play her favourite thing unmauled...but I also need a surveillance system installed so I can track where everybody's stuff has been stashed. Or a security guard, or GPS tracking. It seems like I just can't keep up with the clutter, no matter how much de-cluttering I do, no matter how much I surrender any expectation for what I think a house "ought" to look like. UUrrrghhh...I hate that room.
Somebody remind me that there is more to being a mom than tasks which need to be done over and over and over and over again. Somebody remind me that there is a point where this part of parenthood will get far less sucky. And for the love of all that is holy--somebody please buy our property or give us a couple hundred thousand dollars so we can have the room we need to make this a little easier!!!!
Bless you! We live in a small two bedroom house (and when I say small, I mean VERY small), but it's just the two of us. I could not imagine what it would be like with any number of kids. Mind you, your house must be a bit larger than ours - you could barely get two bunk beds into the second bedroom, never mind space for four kids AND still space for toys etc.
ReplyDeleteBut - bless you. I'll be praying for a financial (or real estate) miracle to come your way :-)
Luckily, the bedrooms and kitchen in our house a really oversized....if they weren't I think I'd have been committed long ago. LOL!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the prayers!