It Doesn't Make Sense...but it is true!

I have to start with telling a story.  It is so vivid in my mind from my childhood that it has to be considered trauma.  I mean seriously...I can still remember all the feelings!

I am the middle child in a family of 3 girls.  My younger sister, Kaitlin, and I shared a room at the time of this story.  Some details may be a little skewed but this is my perspective and how I believe the day went...my mom might disagree.  It was just another day if the life of a sweet mom encouraging her kids to clean up their toys.  You know the scene well....room is trashed...like can't see the carpet trashed.  All the barbies and legos and books and stuffed animals...oh my goodness the stuffed animals.  My mom asks for us to clean our room.  No response.  Time goes by and we the kids just continue on doing whatever we want.  Mom asks again.  Nada.  And then it all happened....She LOST IT!  My mom lost her marbles and my eyes were wide open watching.  She grabbed a trash bag and filled it to the brim with all our toys.  She filled and filled and said they were gone...all our toys were gone!  If we couldn't listen to her and take care of our toys then they were garbage.  Oh the tears and screams..."no mom, no...I'll clean...Don't throw away my toys."  On she went....and we watched from the dining room window as she put all the garbage bags on the side of the road to be thrown away.  Like I said Trauma for a little kid!

Now...I am not quite sure how affective this little practice was in getting us to clean our room from here on out...but it has definitely stayed with me how I felt in that moment of disobedience.  I am also pretty sure the moment my dad got home, he brought everything back into the garage...but point was made well!

Have you ever felt the way my mom did?  Over it!  Fed Up to the point of throwing every last thing out the window.  I know I have!

And yet...I wonder...is this all our fault as parents.  Is it our fault our kids have SO MANY THINGS...too many things for a 5 or 8 or 12 year old to take care of themselves.  What if we helped our children take care of only what they could handle?  What if we taught them...Less is actually more.

It is so funny to me how with each child we added to our family...the less stuff we needed.  With Zoe, we had all the things.  Our house looked like a babies r us catalog.  A bouncer, a swing, a bumbo, a boppy...a highchair, a changing table....on and on and on.  Once Owen came along...we literally brought out only what we needed....which was almost nothing.  Zach and I calmed as parents.  We were now seasoned and had no problem changing Owen on the hardwood floors or just laying him on a blanket on the floor to play.  We simplified.

We had a basement FULL of toys for the big kids!  I set up an adorable toy room with cute magnet boards, homemade desk, shelves of toys, fun reading chairs....it was a great place to learn and play.  And my kids never wanted to step foot in the room.  It was crazy.  Such a great place full of anything they could want...or so I thought...and they hated playing there.  Instead, they wanted to play with one or two cars for endless hours.  What gives!  It made me so angry and made me feel like it was all such a waste!

Now...we have less toys and they play with every one of them!  When we have less options, we use what we have more often and are more content.  It doesn't make sense, but it is true!  Also with less...clean up is stress free and FAST!  What we have in our home for our kids are the toys and items they TRULY love!  So simple.

What causes you to stress when it comes to your kids and their things?  How do you think you can simplify?