Clean your kids rooms

I read a couple of parenting blogs.  Sometimes they are very topical.  One such post was about the Columbine shootings.  I think the 10 year anniversary was recently.  Anyway, the post talked about how the mother of one of the boys had no idea what her son was up to.  She was surprised by what she found when she cleaned out his room after his death. 

Imagine, if the shoes were on your feet and it was your kid that was so depressed that he wanted to blow up a school and kill himself.  You have to imagine that there are signs of that somewhere.  A hint that perhaps this might be going through his head.  This mother never went into her son's room, because that was his private space and she didn't want to be nosy.  The author of the blog I was reading said that it is wise to clean your kids rooms occasionally.  It is an enlightening experience to do that.

I do not have teenagers.  My kids are not old enough for me to be really concerned that they might blow up a school.  I am getting close, but not quite yet.  Still, cleaning their rooms is an enlightening experience.  The boys have been cleaning their own rooms since school started.  But, both rooms had gotten to the point where they needed a good once over. 

I donned my cleaning outfit, not a french maids ensemble but sweats and a t-shirt that have bleach stains on them, I am serious about this.  Thoose rooms were taking on an odor, some machinery was needed.  You know, boy funk.  Anyway, the things I found was educational.

The boys are hording toothbrushes.  Both had about 8 of them under there beds.  All unused, some in their packages some not.  I thought, what are they doing with this many toothbrushes?  When I questioned them about it, I was informed that they did not wish their sister to use their toothbrushes so they were keeping them in their rooms.  But 8 of them???  Really, is that necessary?  A 2 year supply?

I also found Valentines Day and Halloween candy wrappers under their beds.  This has not been there since the respective holidays, but apparently one of them was stockpiling their candy and wanted to finish it off prior to the new haul coming in.  Perhaps this is why they needed so many toothbrushes.

Finally, the source of the funk in Sam's room was a rotting sandwich.  One he didn't want to eat, so he hid under his bed.  In Mac's room it was an apple, left from a late night snack.

I learned that house rules, no eating in your rooms, are disregarded.  That there is a dental hygiene obsession and Mac can budget out his candy really well.  It was educational.  No bombs, other than stink bombs were located.  I wonder what I will find next time.