Messology

pic from Marcia Francois

Messology = the study of how mess comes about, from a mother’s perspective.

One thing I’ve learnt to do when entering a child’s room is to apply ‘selective vision’ (you’ve heard of ‘selective hearing’, right? this is the other side of the coin). I wish I could invent a pair of ‘mommy glasses’ – when worn, this glasses filter out all the mess so that we can only see a perfectly neat and tidy room!

The things I have found under the furniture, especially the bed, in my children’s room have been rather interesting. Usually it’s just coins, small toys or pieces of paper but nothing beats this - one time I found not one or two… but THREE pairs of stiff and fossilized underwear under the bed. That created a volcanic eruption of the furious-mommy kind!

The desk also needs a special mention in Messology. My children insist that it is an organized mess, meaning that everything is piled up high on the desk but they are still able to find the things they are looking for from that pile. They complain that I am just making a mountain out of a molehill…pun intended.

Ok, ok, I admit that I am not so neat myself. My hubby (being the neat and tidy one) always says that there is no empty piece of flat surface anywhere in our house – my children and I use up all of them to store our stuff!

But as a mother it’s my responsibility to instill good habits in my children, so I often nag them about keeping their room neat and clean. I suppose the ‘mommy glasses’ would be a better solution…or I could just do what Phyllis Diller suggested: "If your house is really a mess and a stranger comes to the door, greet him with 'Who could have done this? We have no enemies!'"