Messy Bedrooms

Quote of the Day: " Learning to ignore things is one of the great paths to inner peace. "
— Robert J. Sawyer, Canadian science fiction writer (1960- )

Hal's Take:
This is a tricky quote and a delicate concept. By no means should we ignore our children and/or the things they do that need to be addressed. But we could benefit, in my opinion, from learning to ignore some aspects of their behavior that simply aren’t worth our attention. Like their room, for instance.

Every seminar I give, every town I visit, this question arises. “What do I do about my child’s messy room?” And at every seminar and in every town, my answer is the same. You close the door and ignore it. It is their room, after all. About once a month, insist that it be cleaned of all bio hazardous material, but other than that – ignore the piles of clothes and the wads of paper. It just isn’t worth it. You can teach them self respect in a number of other ways. You can teach them cleanliness and order when they clean the common areas of the house. But you’ll save yourself a lot of stress if you can just shut the door and learn to ignore (at least some of) the mess that comes along with kids.

Hal Runkel, LMFT,

author of ScreamFree Parenting:Raising Your Kids by Keeping Your Cool.

This is one thing Hal was asked alot about when we went to his Seminar. It makes so much sense, but I just can't do it. I know I am a clean freak, but I tried. I just can't. A few things on the floor is okay, but not a huge mess!