Monday 12 November 2012

Everything in its place....?



Have created a Homework Drawer.  It has sellotape, glue, pencils, pens, rulers.... ANYTHING your child will need for their homework.  
This follows on from approximately 18 years of homework, when a child will say, where is a Pencil, and we will spend 30 minutes finding a Pencil, which we find under the cushions on the sofa, lead smashed to smithereens by a week's worth of bottoms sitting on it.  
Then child says, where is the Pencil Sharpener, and we spend another 15 minutes finding the Pencil Sharpener, which we eventually find under the sofa, next to several felt tips that have no lids on, next to the lids, with no felt pens in them.
Almost every homework has begun this way, with varying times of 'finding' things. By the time the Object has been found, all enthusiasm for Homework has evaporated, and the next half hour is spent either crying (them) or shouting (me).
Imagine the bliss of my Homework Drawer!
Child says, 'Mum, where is a Pencil?'  
And I say, with ill-concealed excitement... 'In the Homework Drawer!'
And said Child goes to Drawer and opens it and FINDS THE BLOODY PENCIL ALL ON THEIR OWN!!!!!!!
Oh, the joy. The satisfaction. The peace.
Have also got my own Tool Kit, Matches, Firelighters, and Torch.  They are all hidden away where NO ONE CAN FIND THEM AND PUT THEM SOMEWHERE 'SAFE'.
Because how in HELL am I supposed to know that 'the matches are outside in the shed under the chair that has some paint on it'?
?????????
Or that 'the hammer is in the greenhouse next to the black pot with seeds from last year's runner beans in it'?
?????  
Or that 'the firelighters are on the patio'?
???????????????????????????????????????????
???????
And so I am at last an organised person, who knows where things are.
Well, where THOSE things are.
Still haven't a clue where my wellington boots are, last seen on my feet before the weekend, and worn by someone else since, who put them 'somewhere, but can't remember quite where'.
Or where my entire sock collection is.  Husband says he put them in my drawer.  
????
'Oh', he says, 'Maybe I put them in someone else's?  What colour were they again?  Yes, they might be in Daughter's sock drawer.'  Go to Daughter's sock drawer.  Find Youngest's entire sock collection, plus Middle Son's entire sock collection, but not mine, or Daughter's.  
Go back to Husband and tell him, who says, 'have I tried Middle Son's Sock Drawer?'  
?????
In a word, no.
And so while some things are blissfully in the place where I have put them, other things aren't.
But I'll think about that for another day.
Today I have a Homework Drawer!!
Yippee. 




7 comments:

Trish said...

I always try to be organised with drawers but then it's so easy to slip other things into the drawer so they no longer just have the appointed items. All my drawers are now 'miscellaneous'.

Expat mum said...

I did that with open shelving and artsy wicker baskets. Each child had its own "box" where I dumped every paper thing they owned. We also had a box for tools like pencil sharpeners etc. You're right - it makes one feel positively saintly.
Trouble is, in my kitchen, I have about three drawers where everything gets dumped and I can never remember which drawer houses the tape measure or the dog brush. Pah!
PS. I am now onto my 6th attempt at word verif!

Leilani Schuck Weatherington said...

Yes. Drawers for stuff. Several junk drawers for important stuff (amazing how often I might need a small screw driver, or a small pair of pliers or some duct tape or.... and usually I can find it!

Clippy Mat said...


did you find your socks or your wellies? hopefully both.
perhaps they are also in the shed under the chair with the paint on it???
you make me laugh.
:D

Unknown said...

Oh, I wish I was so organised!

Your blog is so funny, but so true! Why is it's mum's are expected to be mind readers, know where everything is and have everything under complete control at all times?

Now, off to find some drawers ;)

Mum Down South said...

Homework drawer? What a good idea. Will steal that one! x

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