18 replies to this topic

[SearchRank]

What I want to know is this: If both parents are tidy people, how do little kids learn to be untidy? One of the great mysteries of the universe, if you ask me.

It is called "rebellion" my friend!

I am a very organized and pretty clean person but my kids are complete slobs. They are great kids, don't get me wrong... respectful, make good choices, etc. but when it comes to cleaning up after themselves, man forget it! I just assume it is their way of "pushing the envelope." Much better than what alot of their friends do to their parents in addition to the sloppiness.

I should add that mine are all teens ... with little kids, I would credit it to, as Bill Cosby says, "Kids are brain damaged from birth."

[Minerva]

I can keep after my guys at home, but school is another story. My almost-thirteen-year-old has a compost pile in his school locker. All those dirty gym clothes are going to start smoldering one of these days.

-Andrea-

[cline]

BrianR, the answer to your question is the 2nd law of Thermodynamics.

[Scottie]

I think they come with a built-in search-and-destroy mechanism. They cannot rest until they have touched everything in a room, moved half of what is not bolted down into various other rooms, and tinkered with everything with moving parts until it breaks. It's a compulsion.

My 4-year-old will loosen every knob on every kitchen drawer (they are pewter dragonflies) even though he KNOWS he will be punished for doing it. He leaps and runs out of the room when he hears me coming... he KNOWS... but he must unscrew those knobs...

I kid you not, I laid a napkin on the kitchen counter, turned to get something out of the fridge, and when I turned back, the napkin was fluttering to the floor on the other side of the room. I asked my son how that happened... "I don't know..." he said, with his innocent blue eyes looking very sincerely up at me.