The Messies....

I have finally come to the realization, after almost 14 years of parenting, that children just don't care what their rooms look like. Oh, I imagine in some tiny corner of the world there is at least one who likes neatness, but they probably are one of those child prodigies who could do mental calculus in the newborn nursery! My children like messiness. For instance, it doesn't bother my 13 year old son that his room smells like a combination of stale food and locker room. My girls think that having a band aid collection hanging on the wall is normal and of course the baby boy of the family is ok with having his toys, clean clothes and dirty clothes all in one container.
How do I feel about all of this you might ask. Well I'll tell ya......it drives me nuts!!!!! I tell them to clean their rooms but that causes other problems because they "discover" things. A chunk of concrete from the church parking lot that is priceless in value, or the snack wrapper with the special online code to win a trip for you and a gazillion friends to go to Disney World. These are the treasures that must be kept no matter how much penicillin is being cultivated on them. So in the end I just resign myself to pretending that there was some kind of nuclear explosion involving Toys R Us and a cake factory behind those doors (which now will remain closed)!