Perspectives on Messes

I feel confident that I am not the only mama who gets frustrated with messes. Gimme an AMEN, sistas!

It seems that one of the side effects of having toddlers is a constant state of clutter strewn across the floor.

In order to not go crazy, I've had to learn how to put these messes in perspective.

These adorable children are not just making messes to make me a mental mess. They're learning how to play! And play is how they learn how to process life in general.

I love, love, love that a mess means my children haven't been mush-braining in front of the TV! Quite the opposite, really -- they've been playing and imagining and enjoying and thinking and creating and sharing and socializing and figuring life out.

I've noticed that my little kiddos feel so empowered picking something up and changing its location!  So much of their little lives is under someone else's control that it must be a thrill to be able to control that little gadget of a toy.

I admit, they're fickle, these toddlers of mine, what with their short attention span. They go from one toy to the next with no regard as to where the last toy came from and certainly no concept for putting it back where it belongs before moving on to the next toy.

I heard of one mom, we'll call her Fannie (for Fanatical), who locked the toy cabinet. She would unlock it upon request, and the child could choose one toy and then she'd lock it back up. Again, when the child asked, she would open it and the child could trade toys. I'm sure her home was one of the few that stayed clean. And I'm almost as sure that her child was well-trained in OCD tendencies.

Well, I'm not going to judge her. To each her own -- I'm sure she was handling the stress of cleanliness in the best way she could think of. But for myself, I'm not interested in keeping track of the key and having to stop what I'm doing to open and close the cabinet as often as the child would want.

And quite honestly, when I have the opportunity to watch my children play, I can see that part of the joy for them is going from one toy to the next as their minds get sparked by the view of the different toy. Their imaginations get working, er, I mean, playing and just from seeing something else, they're inspired and instantaneously, they're ready to play a whole new game.

Plus, I think that children can learn a lot from seeing a very messy space, working on it step-by-step, and then seeing that same area all nice and clean because of their work. I know for myself it is a very gratifying process! Sometimes that is all that motivates me to start digging in -- knowing that I will be a force for good, making the world a better place.

So, when my kids have been messy, I give them that same opportunity to recognize the impact they're making on their surroundings! Yay for you, kiddos -- you're able to clean up the messes you make!