The House Is Not a Kleenex

"The house is not a Kleenex"

Sadly, this is a phrase I need to drill into my kids' brains. Over and over again apparently, as they believe that the house, is in fact, their personal kleenex box.

And here's how I know this:
Monday morning is pick up time around the house. I attempt to corral the clutter into manageable piles so that my angels Maria and Francesca can help me clean the house - a fact which I have had to justify many times over the years and as recently as two days ago when I explained, again, that I have four kids and being a mom is a full-time job in itself.

So while I'm doing this corralling, I'm noticing streaks on the walls of the boys' bedroom. Small streaks, but streaks just the same. All at around Edwin's arm height. A closer look confirms what I already guess is the origin of the streaks. Eeeuuwww is all that comes to mind. So I instruct Ed to grab some babywipes and start
scrubbing while I go hunt down the Mr. Clean eraser - a product I firmly stand by despite the horrible internet pictures of the one kid who was supposedly burned when he scrubbed his face with it. Ed quickly figures out that the babywipes don't cut it and goes for a more abrasive washcloth (which he does *not* wring out, thereby
creating wet spots in the carpet that I keep finding with my socked feet) to scrub the boogers *Off the Wall.*
(I'm pretty sure Michael Jackson did not use this scenario when he made that title into a hit. Then again, he was once a little boy, so maybe he did.) And a little abrasion is what we needed, because they become glued to any surface they are wiped on. Glued on. Take-the-paint-off glued on.

When Ed decided to put his washcloth down on Aidan's bed (see washcloth description above) it was time to change the sheets. And the mattress pad beneath them. As I stripped the bed, I noticed more streaks about Aidan arm level high on the wall next to his pillows. Because *this* is the kind of behavior that I want all my kids to share.

In the past, I have had to do scrub downs of Colin's room, but those have been met with some pretty severe "discussions" so out of curiosity I checked to see how his walls were faring. Apparently those discussions paid off as he won't be scraping boogers off of his wall this afternoon when he gets home from school.

I'm not looking forward to checking Julia's room, but sadly, I'm thinking she will have some scrub time too.

I have kleenex boxes galore around the house. Obviously, I need to buy a few more. And have a few more "discussions."

Starting with, "The house is not a Kleenex!!!"