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Lindsay Metcalf
on Jun 19 2013 - 06:00 AM
My top five most important moments of the summer so far
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mara williams
on Jun 18 2013 - 06:00 AM
Hey, manchild, mama says: clean your room, wash the dishes, don't drink and drive.
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Emily Parnell
on Jun 16 2013 - 06:00 AM
Eating fresh, local produce is good for body and soul
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Jim Cosgrove
on Jun 13 2013 - 06:00 AM
I just want to buy some pants. Please, turn down the music.
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He flits around the house, fully charged, a human version of the Energizer Bunny. Never without a smile and always full of questions, he charms his way into the hearts of almost everyone he meets. He will find out where you are from, what you like to do and maybe even how old you are. He will reciprocate, even kind enough to share the age of his dear old mom.
He has come into the age of the tweens and is the youngest of my bunch, and fully capable of using his birth position to the greatest advantage possible. Sometimes he tries to exert that I-know-everything attitude that my well-seasoned sixteen-old can push. Sad for him, even with all of his too cute, freckled and red-headed glory, I have learned to shut the door on that.
Recently, as his oldest sister moved out, his brother moved into her room, leaving Simon to be the master of his own domain. Except that it is more like he is now the King of his Chaos. I walk by his room and heave a big sigh-it looks like an island. I see a bed, an ocean of clothes, a half-empty laundry basket and stuff that I wouldn’t quite designate as toys.
Instructions to clean his room over the last weekend fell on deaf ears and now he has entered the world of discipline, in the form of being grounded. Apparently it is not very effective, I passed his room yesterday and all I could think of was the television show Hoarders.
I walk into his brother’s room to get to the laundry room; his room is as neat as a pin. I heave another deep sigh as I realize that my slightly obsessive-compulsive son is probably feeling a whole lot better now that he doesn’t share a room with his brother anymore.
I sit here think about my house as a whole. I am not the greatest housekeeper, I share my abode with plenty of dust bunnies and with two cats and two dogs, well, and there is more animal hair than I like to admit. My carpet is vacuumed but it could always be steam cleaned. The dishes are dutifully done once a day and I do what I can with the rest.
The bathrooms are done by the boys, and I don’t complain if they aren’t up to my standards. I pile mail and take care of it once a week, when I do laundry. I ask the kids not to leave stuff on the living room floor, but this skill is apparently a very, very, very, very long work in progress.Needless to say, I am a mediocre housekeeper, but my clothes are in the laundry basket, my bed is made sometimes and I don’t have toys on the floor. Perhaps I haven’t had high enough expectations, or maybe it is just that lax- life is too important to worry about a sparkling house-attitude I carry because sometimes it just is.
Mr. Personality has another weekend to get that room done so that he can get back to living his life and charming his way among his friends, old and new, while I sharpen my mom skills because I am sure this won’t be the last time we run into this brick wall.
It is Survival of the Tween, and this mom will endure.
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