So my last post was praising my son. Well... I'm not so happy with him at the moment.
I have awful childhood memories of my bedroom and trying to keep it tidy, but I was like any typical teenager between the age of 12 and 16, I lived in a pigsty. The arguments that used to go off at home over the state of my bedroom were terrible. My mum used to make me stay in on a Sunday - I mean - I WASN'T allowed out at all. We were all given jobs to do and then we had to clean and tidy our bedrooms before we had a military style inspection. It was real serious stuff too and woe betide us if we hadn't done it properly.
I always said I would never put my kids through that. I've always felt that they should have their own space and if they wanted to live in a tip, then that was up to them. I'm not one for going in their bedrooms to see what state it's in. I think, particularly at 19 years old (which Russ now is) he has a right to some privacy.
Well... I noticed that for some reason we were getting low on cups, plates, breakfast bowls and cutlery. Even making allowances for breakages, there were still too many missing. So this morning, I opened Russ's bedroom door to see if he had any up there. OMG!! I had to sit down whenI saw the state of his bedroom. This is no lie... between his bed and the far wall, there was a mountain of rubbish higher than the bed! There was literally no floor to walk on at all with all the rubbish and dirty clothes, guitars, amps, pedals, games consoles, DVD's etc. The list is endless.
Russ has always been a bit of a sneezer and I've always thought that it's dust that sets him off. No wonder he sneezes like a madman.. there was inches and inches of dust, made far worse by all the junk on the floor which harbours more dust. So I climbed over the bed and opened the window.. fresh air was the first and most necessary task.
So armed with bin bags, I started to clear up some of the rubbish, which partly consisted of 24 x 2 litre pop bottles, 7 x 12 inch pizza boxes, several Chinese meal boxes, too many drinks cans to count plus many various other packets, boxes, tissues etc etc. I had to put out 5 very full bin bags of rubbish from his room. I found all of my missing crockery.. 6 dinner plates, 5 breakfast bowls, 8 coffee mugs, 7 drinking glasses and various items of cutlery.
I also picked up two full bin bags of dirty washing, and still left several pairs of jeans and various other items of clothes where they were. OMG!! How can he live like that? I suppose he doesn't really see it. He comes home from work, gets showered and changed and goes out again, comes in and goes to bed.. but good grief. I left all of the papers, letters, empty envelopes, games cases etc where they were on the drawer tops, because I really didn't want to feel like I was snooping through is personal posessions, so I just tackled the major disaster area on the floor.
Russ normally does his own washing, but he is never going to get 2 bin bags+ of washing done so I think I'll strike him a deal. He can pay me extra on top of his rent and I will do the washing for him. There's no way he can have dirty clothes lying around like that, it's unhealthy. I have to step in as a parent and get this room into some sort of straight. Afterall, it is part of my house and as much as he values his privacy, he has to respect my wishes, and my wishes are not to have a slum room as part of my house.
I have awful childhood memories of my bedroom and trying to keep it tidy, but I was like any typical teenager between the age of 12 and 16, I lived in a pigsty. The arguments that used to go off at home over the state of my bedroom were terrible. My mum used to make me stay in on a Sunday - I mean - I WASN'T allowed out at all. We were all given jobs to do and then we had to clean and tidy our bedrooms before we had a military style inspection. It was real serious stuff too and woe betide us if we hadn't done it properly.
I always said I would never put my kids through that. I've always felt that they should have their own space and if they wanted to live in a tip, then that was up to them. I'm not one for going in their bedrooms to see what state it's in. I think, particularly at 19 years old (which Russ now is) he has a right to some privacy.
Well... I noticed that for some reason we were getting low on cups, plates, breakfast bowls and cutlery. Even making allowances for breakages, there were still too many missing. So this morning, I opened Russ's bedroom door to see if he had any up there. OMG!! I had to sit down whenI saw the state of his bedroom. This is no lie... between his bed and the far wall, there was a mountain of rubbish higher than the bed! There was literally no floor to walk on at all with all the rubbish and dirty clothes, guitars, amps, pedals, games consoles, DVD's etc. The list is endless.
Russ has always been a bit of a sneezer and I've always thought that it's dust that sets him off. No wonder he sneezes like a madman.. there was inches and inches of dust, made far worse by all the junk on the floor which harbours more dust. So I climbed over the bed and opened the window.. fresh air was the first and most necessary task.
So armed with bin bags, I started to clear up some of the rubbish, which partly consisted of 24 x 2 litre pop bottles, 7 x 12 inch pizza boxes, several Chinese meal boxes, too many drinks cans to count plus many various other packets, boxes, tissues etc etc. I had to put out 5 very full bin bags of rubbish from his room. I found all of my missing crockery.. 6 dinner plates, 5 breakfast bowls, 8 coffee mugs, 7 drinking glasses and various items of cutlery.
I also picked up two full bin bags of dirty washing, and still left several pairs of jeans and various other items of clothes where they were. OMG!! How can he live like that? I suppose he doesn't really see it. He comes home from work, gets showered and changed and goes out again, comes in and goes to bed.. but good grief. I left all of the papers, letters, empty envelopes, games cases etc where they were on the drawer tops, because I really didn't want to feel like I was snooping through is personal posessions, so I just tackled the major disaster area on the floor.
Russ normally does his own washing, but he is never going to get 2 bin bags+ of washing done so I think I'll strike him a deal. He can pay me extra on top of his rent and I will do the washing for him. There's no way he can have dirty clothes lying around like that, it's unhealthy. I have to step in as a parent and get this room into some sort of straight. Afterall, it is part of my house and as much as he values his privacy, he has to respect my wishes, and my wishes are not to have a slum room as part of my house.
