Last week, I had to go up to RJ’s bedroom to look for a library book that was about to be over-due and could no longer ignore the fact that her room was a MESS.
(That’s my rule — teens can do what they want with their room, as long as I don’t have to go into it but as soon as I have to enter the room, for whatever reason — if it’s a mess, then it has to get cleaned up.)
So, I made a date with her to get in there and clean it up. If I’d just told her to clean it up, she would have shoved things into corners and into the closet and under her bed — so I went up and directed her and helped sort through some of the mess with her.
Two hours later…
– Turns out Prince J isn’t the ONLY Pop Tarts stealer in the house. He might eat an entire box of Pop Tarts but RJ hoards package upon package of Pop Tart. I prefer Prince J since we had to toss all of her hoard out and at least he actually eats what he takes.
– She has a lot of journals but she HATES journals.
– I found more than a dozen books that belong to me and TW up there.
– The kid with NO hair has the most hairbrushes. I counted five but there may have been more.
– The kid with NO hair has the most hair accessories: pony tail bands, hair clips, barrettes, head bands.
– Christmas gift card boxes make great condom boxes. Who knew?
– M&M’s might not melt in your hand but they do melt in a M&Ms dispenser that hasn’t been touched in a couple of years. Yuk. (Teens have to be almost FORCED to through said M&Ms dispenser away even after they’ve exclaimed over the disgusting mess inside of the M&M holder for a good twenty minutes.)
Stay tuned — I’ve got a date with Elly for bedroom clean up.
I respected Nik’s room too, until it started spilling into the hallway. And then I went in with a box of 30 gallon trash bags. She hoarded so much useless stuff! Like those little plastic balls with a cheap toy that come out of a machine for a quarter? I remember. She’s a neat freak now, which is pretty hard with two under 3! I wonder what it is about teenagers that makes them want to keep e v e r y t h i n g? Jeremy was a neat freak.