Bittersweet

During their high school years (but not before), I never demanded that my kids clean their rooms. As long as there was no rotting food or drink in their rooms, and as long as I had no reason to believe that they were hiding dangerous substances in their rooms (and had I, their privacy would have been a thing of the past), those rooms were their own private sanctuaries. Sometimes they were clean, but most of the time they were pretty darn messy. It drove me nuts, but it was one of those things that I let go of as they got older.

Although I honored the kids' messy rooms for most of their teen years, there was no way I'd allow those rooms to stay messy once they moved out. "You can't move out," I insisted, "until your room is clean enough for an impromptu guest." And guess what? Without question -- at least so far -- they cleaned their rooms before they left!

I thought I'd love a house filled with tidy bedrooms -- and I do love the tidy bedrooms. But it's just... it's just weird!

Here's what Peter's room looked like a few months ago:

And here it is now:

Here's what Kat's room looked like a few months ago:

And here it is now:

And here's what Aleks' room looked like a few months ago:

And here's what it looks like now:

Hmmmm... Aleks definitely has his work cut out for him this week!