Cecilia's Rules for Messy Kids' Rooms

1997

In my 19 years experience with a very *personally* neat child who emerged daily from a very *messy* room, I have decided that the first and most important thing a parent can do is relinquish ownership of the mess. How, you say? By following (drumroll, please) "Cecilia's Rules for Messy Kids' Rooms", which were instituted when Jessica (b.9/14/78) was about 8 years old.

1. The area around the door must be kept free of debris so that your bedroom door can remain closed any time I'm in the house. It makes my blood pressure rise to see clean clothes intermingled with dirty ones intermingled with school papers intermingled with toys, books and puzzle pieces on your floor.



2. If you want a goodnight kiss, you will have to come to the door to get it. It is not good for someone my age to have her blood pressure elevated to such dangerously high levels that close to bedtime.



3. If you want your clothes washed, you must put them in the hamper or the laundry room. I will not come into your room and attempt to decode your system for determining clean clothes from dirty ones in the unique storage technique you employ when you throw them all together on your floor.



4. No food or drink is to be taken into your room at any time. Someday, should I muster up the courage to enter your room - perhaps to retrieve something of mine that you have borrowed and not returned - I do not want to find something resembling an unfinished biology experiment. This type of misconduct may result in unpleasant odors, bugs and a diminishing number of glasses and dishes available for the rest of the family to use.



5. Parents must maintain a healthy sense of humor and remember... you can clean your child's room thoroughly when he or she grows up and moves out of your home. When you get to that point in time, you may long for those old messes again.

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