Messy Yet Healthy

I am constantly frustrated at the sheer amounts of crap my kids own, and their complete inability to put stuff away. It's not unusual for me to find hair clips in planters, and ballet tights in shopping bags, and totally "essential" plastic pieces of crap "hiding" in my shoes. The house we live in, while pretty roomy, is totally lacking in storage. The main bedrooms all have these itty-bitty closets - with sloping shelves on top so you can't fit more than one sweater up there. My kids have no place to actually put their endless amounts of stuff, which means they leave their stuff absolutely everywhere but where it should be.

This inability to store stuff has led to two interesting skill sets. Firstly, my ability to throw out endless amounts that nobody notices (not even you, DH). Secondly, it has made my kids very creative at good excuses for not putting stuff away. I once shouted at DD2 to put her stuff away, and she shouted back, "WHERE? There is nowhere TO put my stuff away!" This of course took the wind out of my sails and I just stood there laughing like a moron. End result, nothing got put away and she won that round.

Recently I asked DS to put his beloved elephant away - an elephant which is on it's last...trunk, so to speak. The poor guy has so many holes, and so little stuffing, that he's basically just a pale grey rag who has had all his fur loved off. DS, being all boy, still treats his elephant like it's a football and flings it about with gay abandon - a habit which pisses me off enormously. Does he not GET that it's the last vestige of his babyhood, and therefore should really be saved in a glass box with a "do not touch or else" sign on it? Does he not get that the minute he stops loving that thing, I will sit and CRY about my baby boy not being a baby anymore?

Clearly not, if his idea of putting him away is this:


...and of course, when I asked WHY the elephant was in the fruit basket, instead of in, I don't know, YOUR ROOM, I got this as an answer:

"Because elephants need to have a healthy diet, too, and fruit is his favourite food. This way he won't go hungry!"

...and this conversation was closely followed by DD2 "rescuing" elephant from the fruit basket and saying, "Oh my god! Doesn't DS KNOW that an elephant can be CRUSHED TO DEATH by an orange? DS, you need to respect your belongings! How dare you?!"

Amen to that, little one. Amen to that!