I don’t expect my 8 and 6 year old sons to put everything away nicely all the time. Scattered pencils, books, toys sometimes lay out like landmines. It’s an eyesore for my wife and she gets irritated. I usually cut my sons some slack unless it’s really messy. For the most part though, they have been doing a fairly good job. One thing they have been asked to do is to make their own bed every morning.
My oldest does a very good job while his younger brother simply covers the bed with the top blanket, leaving whatever is underneath the way they are. We have a sizable bonus room upstairs. It’s usually littered with my sons’ construction sets, jig saw puzzles. My wife absolutely hates it! I won’t say she is a neatness freak, perhaps one level down from it. On the contrary, I might be a little "anal retentive" as my wife puts it. I even color coded all the hangers I use. All white hangers are used with white or lighter color shirts. Colored hangers are grouped, by their shades and the shirts that go on them.
Every few days the littering can get out of control, when I literally need to tip-toe to get around things, then I summon my boys for a cleanup. Between the two brothers, they have worked out a routine to get this chore done quickly. They may not do it in an orderly fashion that my wife would like, but she has learned to cope with it. At least the three toy chests are easy to push around when she vacuums.
I’m not going to impose house rules like my dad once did. But I will try to instill the self-discipline in my sons. I don’t follow them everywhere they go. Sometimes I can see that they are about to make a mistake and I let them. As long as they don’t get hurt, it will be a valuable learning experience. My wife totally disagrees with me on this. Perhaps it’s a motherly thing, being protective that is.
Give the growing minds space, let them grow!
original post date: June 19, 2009
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