The last two days were the boys first two days of cancelled school due to the coronavirus. We have chosen to not look at this as Second Spring Break, but instead to stay home as much as possible. We sat down and gave the boys some goals for the week, one of which was for them to clean their rooms. In theory this task would only take about 30 minutes, if they didn’t complain and just cleaned their room. As any parent knows, this is not how it went down.
One of them chose to completely empty their closet and throw all his belongings on his bed. Day two, he is still unable to sleep in his own bed.
The oldest did a decent job. He still has some laundry to take care of, but the room is good.
The subject of this blog is my tidy child. His room got a little disheveled with various baseball cards, so he organized them and then cleaned his room. I took a look at it today and it didn’t look done. I asked him to go finish it up and as he was doing so, he informed me that he threw away his recorder from grade school.
Aside from the fact that I minored in music and it just hurts me to know that an instrument (as annoying as the recorder can be) was wasted, I have one more child that will need a recorder next year. It didn’t cost much – I don’t even remember how much, but that really wasn’t the point. I just didn’t want to buy a third recorder. The first one was lost in a move and I was ridiculously excited to have saved the second one. I’m not sure why.
So, the conversation started:
Kid: I threw away my recorder
Me: WHY???
Kid: I was done with it
Other Kid: It was an instrument. Why would you throw it away?
Wasteful Kid (now known as WK): Who even gives a crap?
Me: I do!
WK: Well, it didn’t even sound that good.
Other Kid: Maybe it was you playing it and not the recorder
Me: I WAS JUST GOING TO SAY THAT! (High five to other kid)
WK: It was only $15! Who gives a crap???
Me: Again, I give a crap. Since it’s only $15 you can pay for the next one.
In a power play he huffed and puffed and stuffed his bag from the orthodontist into my purse before he went back into his room and emerged with more trash. He then went back into his room and emerged with more trash.
WK: May I please have your permission to throw this trash away? Would you like to keep this and play it?
At this point I really didn’t love having a clone of myself.
The oldest then went in his room and began playing recorder music to let us know what the youngest would be missing out on.
WK: You guys are annoying. You sound almost like that recorder.
Third Kid enter stage left: What recorder?
Me: The one he threw away.
Third Kid: Now I’ll never learn the recorder? Thanks a lot!!!
Other Kid: He claimed it didn’t sound that good anyway, but we think it was him.
WK: WHO GIVES A CRAP!!!!!
This is day two. DAY TWO.