"My mom cleans my room, I just sleep and wake up and play videogames."
Really? Yes, really. This is an actual quote from a student and truly it baffles my mind. Within a couple days of hearing this in my classroom, I was down in Liam's room explaining to him why (1) He needed to clean his room and (2) He would not get paid for cleaning his own room. It wasn't easy but eventually- after far more playing than actual cleaning- the job was done and the floor of the room was spotless. I say the floor because this left the tops of the dresser, bookshelf and bed strewn with odds and ends. But still, it wasn't bad and at least I hadn't been cleaning it while he lived up a leisurely life in front of the Wii.
How many homes across America are messy until Mom (or Dad) intervenes? Countless. How many are messy until Mom (or Dad) do the cleaning? Hopefully a bit fewer. Because here's the thing... I clean the common areas for my own personal reasons. I don't like stepping on Legos, I'm afraid someone will just stop by, I want to secretly put together Liam's Transformer just because it's fun, etc... Sometimes (now this isn't often) I get into a zen-like state of cleaning where I need that quick satisfaction of turning a room that looks like a gigantic toy box into a living room again. I also tend to clean on my own because if it's really messy it makes me go batty and not be able to concentrate. But whatever, none of these reasons would justify me cleaning up Liam's room. Out of all the rooms in the house, it's the least significant to me (cleanliness wise). At the same time, it's the most significant to Liam... and therefore the one he has vested interest in keeping neater. It's also the one he is most responsible for. I'm pretty sure Daddy and I didn't dump all the books off of the bookshelf and I know Joshua didn't scatter stuffed animals around the room. So I do think it's important for Liam to keep his own room in order... on his own and not for money. Now for money, there are a variety of chores which Liam has already begun to master at the age of 5 and Josh has started to try at the age of 2 that I'm pretty sure that kid in my class has never heard of before... like wiping off the table, helping to cook a cake and raking up leaves.
Hopefully this means that neither of my boys will not end up in my basement at the age of 25 asking me where his clean underwear is. Now here's my biggest wish of all: hopefully I won't end up having to apologize to either of their future wives for sending out a son into the world who has never folded up his own laundry, put away the silverware or vacuumed on his own.
Amen. Although last week Silas said "mom why do you make my life so hard?"
ReplyDeleteHe then was responsible for putting himself to bed.
When I was your age I used to scrub the floor with a toothbrush... it wasn't until later that I realized I had rubbed off all of the laminate, making the floor more prone to dirtiness than ever before.
ReplyDelete