Part of having kids is having toys. And part of having toys is having a place for them to be played with and often this means a dedicated play space or playroom. And part of having a playroom, unless you’re Mary Poppins, is having mess and chaos.
And the worst part of that mess and chaos is the inevitability of having to clean it up once in a while. And that reality can elicit a lot of feelings.
These are the 10 Stages of Cleaning the Playroom:
Shock
You wander by one day and can’t believe how bad it’s gotten. You can hardly see the floor, the furniture is all topsy turvy and you wonder how you missed the tornado that obviously blew through your home.
Denial
It’s not really that bad, is it? I mean, it could always be worse. It’s been surely messier than this before, right?
Panic
It’s bad, it’s really really bad. How did this happen? How did you not see it coming? Were you living under a rock while your sweet little dumplings were quietly destroying the place?
Anger
You feel the rage bubbling inside you and your inner mommy t-rex explodes “this room needs to be cleaned up nooooooooooooooow!” You start grabbing things “what is this? Why is this here? What were you thinking?!?!”
Loneliness
You begin to tidy up, giving the kids direct orders only to realize they’ve all abandoned ship and you’re the last man standing in an abyss of chaos.
Bargaining
You start to plea with your kids to clean up. You offer incentives, rewards, prizes. Let’s be real, you bribe the heck out of them: “I’ll let you watch 8 hours of TV if you just clean this mess up!” (Because you know they can’t make another mess if they’re sitting in front of the boob-tube!)
Guilt
You start to think about all the places you went wrong that allowed this to happen. Were you on your phone too much? Are you not spending enough quality time with your kids? Is this really a cry for help or attention?
Acceptance
You realize that this is just part of having kids and get started on what needs to be done. You put on your grannie panties and get to work.
Reconstruction
You clean every tiny inch of that playroom while happily singing the “clean up song” and trying everything you can think of to get your kids excited about clean up.
Hope
Once it’s all cleaned up you give the kids a long peptalk about how important it is to keep it clean. “Doesn’t it feel good to have a nice clean place to play?” You give them a five-step plan for playroom bliss and actually believe it might stay clean in the future. (ha!)
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