Life is messy, so they say. Whoever first said that must have been referring to a life of raising boys. Boys seem to be born louder and more prone to mischeif. My perspective is perhaps a bit one sided being that I am the mom of only 1 girl and 3 boys who are all within 4 years of each other.
My daughter did get into her fair share of stuff but I think the difference is the quantity and the frequency. She may have colored on my lamp and my vacuum with a blue sharpie marker one morning but after being chewed out and having an appropriate consequence, she did not try anything like that for a long period of time and then never the same kind of mischeif. Granted, she drank her fair share of things she shouldn't have like dishsoap and Dimetap but never in the same day...not even in the same year. And she is messy or rather untidy. But even still, it's not the same as what I experienced this past weekend with my little, sweet-faced, blue-eyed blonde-haired cutie-patootie STINKERS.
Over the span of a 3 day weekend, my boys ages 5 3/4 and 4 1/3 years old created the following "Messes Extraordinaire":
1. a roll of trash bags down the hallway, sprinkled with a package of finely shredded cheese.
2. 18 partially opened/consumed cans of pop shook up and sprayed all over the bedroom floor...next to piles of shredded cheese.
3. 2 mattresses flipped off of beds and onto the floor to maximize the jumping.
4. Throwing rocks off a little landing, and thereby, breaking the window of a neighbors van, complete with an interview with a police officer. (Not to mention the cost of replacing the neighbors window)
5. Two separate instances of making "Bathrom Gin" consisting of mixing powdered juice into the sink, various cups, toothbrush holder and plasic containers; spilling all over the bathroom floor and counter. Did I mention TWICE...within 18 hours of each other???
6. Running a roll of toilet paper down the hall.
7. Running up and down the hall with red thread tied around stuffed animals.
8. Climging up into the cupboards and getting snack bags set aside for lunches for the rest of the week and eating all the snack bags of Cheeto's as well as 3 boxes of granola bars.
The list could go on. But quite frankly, the weekend with the exception of a few highly emotional moments, has become a bit of a blur...could be fatigue from the continual vacuuming, cleaning floors, counters, tubs and boys many, many times over.
Yup. Life with boys is messy.
My kids will have to endure the long-term consequences of this weekend of messes. They will have to do "Community Service" for mom in order to pay off the cost of the van window as well as being grounded for the week from "All things Fun". And I, on the other hand, will take my own lessons from this weekend and come up with some projects for the kids to do in order to pay off their debt as well as evaluate some of my own parenting practices and child expectations. I have been reading some things in a book called "What they should learn along the way" and from a website for working moms about the types of chores kids can do according to their age.
My parents are enjoying this moment of payback for all that my sisters and I put them through. I am positive I did not mix "bathtub gin" with Kool-aid nor break any windows. But I am also sure that I did give my parents plenty of headaches. So, they can enjoy this time of watching me parent and get a little payback for my childhood. Someday I will be a grandma and I will do the same. It's only fair.
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