Halie and Catie clean up their respective rooms each evening, as part of our ‘bedtime routine’. Catie and Rosie share a room, and a large toy box. Rosie at 2 years old, has just begun to understand the concept of putting her toys in the toy box. I know that she is still trying to bend her mind around the idea of actually placing her toys in a storage unit when she knows that she’ll play with them again in the future. Maybe not today, but tomorrow for sure. Tonight, after Catie worked hard to put away all the toys in her room (read: complained, whined, gave me every reason that she needed to be elsewhere), I happened to catch Rosie in the act of dismantling Catie’s
carefully constructed pyramid of stuffed animals atop the overflowing toy box. I simply stepped into the next room to retrieve my camera, and when I aimed, this is what I saw:
Catie, initially, was trying very hard to be angry with her baby sister. Then, the sea of estrogen that is barely contained by our house erupted – in raging laughter. Not only did I not ask Catie to pick the toys up again, I left the glacier of stuffed animals for tomorrow night’s ‘bedtime routine’. Then, I’ll ask Catie to clean it up, of course. When she begins to complain, pointing out that her sister made the mess, I’ll be sure to point out how many messes she creates and expects Mommy to clean them up.
Family Circus 
Buffi said,
December 1, 2005 at 8:20 pm
Um, yes, that one definately goes in the family album!
Anonymous said,
December 2, 2005 at 11:25 am
I have two who still don’t quite understand the concept of cleaning, though they help out a little. I hear, “BUT.. I didn’t make that mess.” Quite often and I respond to that with, “Yeah, I know, and I didn’t make all those dirty dishes, the sticky spot on the kitchen floor, or all those dirty clothes, yet I clean them.” I tell my girls that I’m getting them ready to be good mothers and my son that I’m getting him ready to help his wife be a good mother.
Julie – http://julie.marzhillstudios.com