Update to Drastic Measures

Yesterday when Hayden got home from school he didn't seem too concerned that his room was almost empty (I didn't quite make it before he got home). He came in and wanted to see what I was doing. I decided that since I was emptying the room I might as well move the furniture, since it was empty, and clean the walls and vacuum really good. Carson helped me remove the remaining toys out.


At first Hayden seemed kind of excited that his room was clean. But then it hit him. He had no toys and no books. He started to cry. He told me it wasn't fair. I told him it wasn't fair that I had to spend a day or two cleaning his room only to have him come along and mess it all up again. He agreed that that wasn't fair either.


After he got over his crying spell, I let him pick one toy to have back. He picked his puppet theater. Of course that contains more than one piece, so we decided on a good spot to keep the puppet theater and the puppets. Before the puppets were kept in a basket in one of his drawers and the puppet theater was kept in the top of his closet, which meant that he didn't play with it much. We kept the puppets where they were before and moved the puppet theater down where he could get it. He was so excited that he did several puppet shows for us. If I can find my camera (it has been missing for several days) I will take a picture of the puppet theater. Several years ago I got a brilliant idea for a puppet theater, so for his birthday I made one for him. Okay, I didn't really make it. I designed it and picked out the fabric and my mom sewed it. I don't have a sewing machine. I'm sure I could have made it, though.


Here's where I have to confess something. I do not like watching my kids do puppet shows. When it comes to putting on a puppet show, they are not very imaginative. For instance, one of Hayden's shows last night consisted of a doctor selling markers. He had the doctor on his right hand. Then he would go through all of the puppets asking them if they wanted to buy a marker. There would be a pause between each one while he switched the puppets on his left hand. After he went through all the puppets the last one finally bought the marker. But it didn't end there. He went through all the markers and all the puppets. I almost dozed off. But when it was over we all clapped like it was the best puppet show we had ever seen. He thought it was great.

Back to the story. After he was done playing with the puppet theater he did not want to put it away. I started to argue with him about it, telling him I was going to count to five, or that he'd better get in there and pick it up now, but then I backed off. I just said, "That's okay. I don't care if you don't pick it up. If you don't pick it up I'll just take it away again and you'll have to earn it back." After a few minutes he quietly went in and put it away. We're starting out with baby steps and hopefully it will work.

Before bed I let him pick two books to put back in his room. He was too tired to pick them so I picked them. He read them to me and then we put them on his shelf. I'm going to let him pick one toy and two books a day. If he only got to pick one book a day it would take forever to get all of his books back in. Besides, this way he can read them to me and by the time they are all back he will have read them all.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but for a five-year-old he is an amazing reader. He even read a book to his preschool class when he was in preschool. I'm totally guessing here but I think he is probably reading on a 2nd grade level. He can read almost as good as Carson, who is in second grade and is reading above grade level. It's really fun to hear him read. Yes, I am bragging. He may be a messy mischief, but he's a great reader.

Back to the story, again. I keep getting sidetracked. This morning as he was getting ready for school, he realized that he didn't have a room full of choices for Show and Tell. He started crying and telling me it wasn't fair. We talked about the situation again, and I told him he could take a puppet for Show and Tell. He didn't want to take a puppet, so he isn't participating in Show and Tell today. Also this morning he tried to sneak two toys back in his room, but I caught him. He wasn't too happy about that. I'm going to have to check his room every day and make sure he's not sneaking things in.

He has access to most of his toys because we don't have a lot of space to put them. They are distributed throughout the house. They are: in the linen closet, in the coat closet, in Carson's room, in the hallway between the bedrooms (two drawer units), and downstairs behind the exercise equipment. I would have preferred to put them somewhere where he can't see them, but there isn't anywhere available. Maybe it's good he can see them. He can see what he's missing out on.

I have to say I think we're off to a pretty good start so far. He's not too happy about the situation, but I think it's really making him think about things, and I don't think it has traumatized him too much. He has to learn some time, and it needs to be sooner rather than later before I have a clutter-induced breakdown.