I finally know what my mom was talking about all those years
ago. My room was a mess, I just couldn’t see it.
These days, I have two 7th graders whose rooms
are, for the most part, danger zones. I can walk in and get to the bed to do
the nightly tuck-in, but beyond that, there isn’t a spot on the floor big
enough for my feet to settle.
Maybe it's a defense mechanism – “If I keep my room messy
mom will just look in from the door and won’t bother to come in and touch
anything.” And it works. If they’ll bring their own laundry up and down the
stairs, then there really isn’t a reason for me to go in. So I don’t.
So where do I draw the line with the messy room? I’ll tell
you where – at ants.
Not once, but TWICE we have found advanced colonies of ants
in Alex’s room.
Usually the discovery comes after bedtime, when I’m tired, and
have a long list of things to do (dishes? Oh, well!) It takes 20 minutes to
clear the space of all the clutter and trash just to determine how bad the
situation really is. Then 20 more minutes to kill the ants, clean the
floor/wall/anything that an ant has touched, and to get things situated well
enough for us to go to bed.
Its painful, and really stressful, and infuriating. The last
time the ants were there because there was a happy meal box with French fries
in it under her bed.
Me: “When was the last time you had a happy meal?”
Kid: “I don’t know…”
So, as a result, Alex has to clean off her floor weekly and
isn’t allowed to have anything under her bed. Who knew this would be so
terribly difficult to maintain? They’re at school for most of the day, then
asleep all night. How in the world does the remaining 8 hours give her time to
make such a crazy mess?
And so the discussion comes full circle back to my own
mother – who I’m sure had all the exact same thoughts I’m having now. Is it the
circle of life? The way the world turns? How the cookie crumbles?
I suppose its just having kids who turn into teenagers.
