Today I was sick, again. Headache, terrible nausea. This has been going on since July 14 when I returned to Bogota, Colombia pregnant. I was actually pregnant before I left, but didn’t know it.
While I laid in bed hoping to feel better, I heard my 6 year old being mean to my 18 month old. I came out to see what was the problem. The living room was covered in toys. All 3 very large baskets were empty as well as a box that had already been organized as a donation. My son said he was looking for a special toy of his. I asked why he was looking in the donation box if he had already approved of the items inside. He didn’t have an answer, but now the entire floor was littered with toys. I debated on taking a picture and posting it to my blog, but since I’m a luddite, I didn’t want to waste the time trying to post such a depressing picture. Instead, for the next hour, my son tried to clean up his mess and while I tried not to throw up, I tried to encourage him. Finally, the sickness overwhelmed me and I went to bed. Hours later, the mess was still there.
Update: Just now my son comes in smelling like sweat. He had been downstairs playing with two friends in the enclosed park of our complex. He said, “I’ve had the best day of my life! I have two friends and guess what, they…” and he proceeded to talk to me about his day outside, on the trampoline, and on the playground…no little toys involved. This is the way it has been most of his life, it’s just how he is. Now it gives me incentive to do something about the baskets of toys that just sit (and occasionally get scattered by him).
1. Oldest child-she’s 14 ½ years old and has become quite aware of her clutter (she lives in my clutter, so why not?!), but every 4 months or so I ask if she wants to make a donation to the embassy or to our church. She’s always good to let at least something go.
2. Second oldest child-he’s 6 years old and has a habit of doing some major damage to his toys (dropping them out of our apartment window, breaking it open to see what it looked like inside, microwaving it, cutting parts of it off) so after the 5th time that I explained to him that a lot of children in Bogota don’t have any toys (and he seeing them working the streets), he has really become quite generous lately. I still give him the choice as to what goes as I know this is key in fostering a sense of giving. It’s hard to give away what you want to keep. Believe me, I know this pain all too well from my own childhood. I like repeating history that’s good for us.
3. Third child- she’s not quite 2 years old, but she still has a say in what stays and goes. I listen to her and watch her as I don’t want to give away anything that she likes playing with. I obviously keep some things that I know she’s going to grow into as well and if she doesn’t, I have to keep the items as they were played with when my husband’s family were little (and I have a few toys from my childhood as well!).
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