Thursday, January 08, 2009

Messy House

This year I decided that I would not make a resolution to be more organized because it is just never going to happen. Hello? I did resolve to keep my budget, so I planned all of my meals for January and did my shopping for the first two weeks. It feels great and I do feel really organized. I mean I can tell you what we are having for dinner in three weeks. My friend Andrea suggested that I might accidently become organized. Wouldn't that be awesome?

Anyway, so my house is messy, but we have had great dinners all week and it has made my household much less stressful during the dinner rush. Last night I was reading a magazine that my friend Judith sent me for my birthday, Cookie. There was an article on what not to worry about. I really don't need to read that article because I don't worry enough, but I did and I found this quote... My life is complete. The section was called "Is a messy house bad for my children?"

There are the potential cognitive benefits of a disorderly house. When you work or play in a messy space, you get to "see a lot of things in one place which can bring about random stimulation" says Freedman. "That's a big part of creativity." For example, let's say you have a rule that your child must put away a toy before he can pull out another. If he playing with blocks and makes a tower, he has to put the blocks away before he drags out the dolls. A kid who is allowed to be messy, on the other hand, will be able to make a building and then pretend the dolls work there. "Children and adults have more ideas when they have a lot of things in front of them. They are less restricted."

It was encouraging not because I want to be messy, but I am a little messy naturally. I am glad that there a some benefits for my kiddos. It is really easy for me to be down on myself about this and see no benefit to my personality. After reading this, I enjoyed Grayson skate boarding on pieces of his car ramp. I also enjoyed Lillian and Grayson dressed up playing bus driver on there new ride on toy." I felt like I was able to watch them make up their play based on all these things around them. It was really cool.

3 comments:

2WeeMonsters said...

Yes!!! I knew there was a reason I can never quite get it all put back together! Thanks for the quote. I think I'll be able to chill a little more now :)

Lora said...

Your Aunt Barbara turned me on to planning my meals for a week at a time when I worked. IT WAS GREAT! Now that I am retired though, I enjoy flying by the seat of my pants and cooking based upon my whims.

HOPE my kids do not read your blog-they will blame me for their troubles since I insisted upon a neat house.

Genna said...

Girl, it is a wonder my kids have made it. I TRY, but I fail all the time, and my kids have survived untold grossness from the floor. Any time you want to feel better about yourself, just come for a visit--unannounced. I can do a bang up job if I know someone's coming (that's my pride at work).

Love you.