There are three things I am guaranteed to find while inspecting the room he swore he cleaned. Dried out apple cores decomposing under his bed, sunflower seeds hidden inside his pillow case, and half chewed up foam darts scattered on the floor. Sometimes I think he's really a puppy.
Rio insisted there's too much stuff, and he doesn't know where to put it. So in attempts to give him more space I made an offer he couldn't refuse.
"Rio, why don't you get rid of some of your Buzz Lightyears?" I asked.
He looked at me and shook his head, "No way, Mom!"
"They look pretty beat up," I tried to persuade him, while examining his toys. "How about this," I offered, "I'll trade you."
"Trade me for what?" His interest was triggered.
"If you throw out the old ones...I'll buy you a brand new one," I bartered.
It worked out better than I planned.
I have a feeling my tactics are not going to be received as well in Amaya's room.
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Great job! I've made a deal with my 8 year old that his floor needs to be clean but he can keep stuff on his dresser. Bad deal on my part because you go in his room and can't even tell he has a dresser!
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't worry about Rio, a healthy eater, apples and sunflower seeds....we'll ignore the foam darts. And what a good deal he negotiated New for old. Wish my insurance company would do this"
ReplyDeleteI'm always guaranteed to find shriveled up apples and bananas mashed into the carpet...hence my new rule of food at the kitchen table only! I so need to go through my gilrs' toys again and get rid of stuff.
ReplyDeleteI thought my daughter was doing a good job cleaning her room until I realized she was stuffing everything into random spaces: drawers, under the bed, the corner of the closet. Hey! She stole my technique!
ReplyDeleteMom's have to be so smart these days!
ReplyDeleteGreetings, Lady Nikki :-).
ReplyDeleteAh. But the engineer in me steps forward - back you madman! Back - It's no good. He insists on his say.
"Ahem. So let us assume the initial issue is
Stuff = 'Too much'.
Let us assign an arbitrary value to 'Too Much' - M.
The negotiation appears to be that, to achieve less stuff:
M - 1 (old item) + 1 (new item) < M
That is... if I take one away from M and add one, I end up with less M.
I think your son has taken negotiation lessons from my wife's shoe closet... :-).
Ah. I see I mis-read it. In fact, he was to throw out _all_ the old ones. Now. Can you come work the same magic on the aforementioned shoe closet? :-).
ReplyDeletehaha well done...and good luck in Amaya's room.
ReplyDeleteI must've been an anomaly because I was very neat as a child. And good to know you write science fiction as well!
ReplyDeleteOh yes little boys are slobs. I have four nephews and their idea of cleaning is to shove everything out of sight. And the twelve year old thinks that deodorant is a shower replacement. He and his best friend purchased some Axe body spray so they would not have to take a shower any more. Imagine their disappointment when I informed them otherwise. Good luck in Amaya's room. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for your follow and comment on my blog, I'm now following you as well. Love your humor and especially love the photos with the bubble wrap, God knows my son could do with some of that!
ReplyDeleteI was a bit of an anomaly as a kid too; I was fairly neat too, and still am; one exception: when I do laundry, it takes forever to fold anything up.
ReplyDelete