This is why we can't have nice things.

This is going to make me look really mean and petty.
Which is who I am on occasion.
A few weeks ago Cocoa tore up one of her toys. She just ripped the stuffing right out of that thing as if it were her mission in life.
Lindsay looked right at her and said in a stern voice:

This is why we can't have nice things!

I died.
IT sounds just like something my Mom would have said to me as a kid. And it was true.
We didn't have nice things. Because of Cocoa. I mean because of me.

And now....well now I'm a neat-freak. With emphasis on the freak neat.
And my children?
NOT so much on the neat side. And that just freaks me the HECK out.

The bedrooms; they have been a point of contention since the girls decided to have a mind of their own. There is an upside to having rowdy little toddlers....my toddlers loved 'the clean up song'. Barney was all bad-azz like that.

My teenagers have lives and it's harder to control their clutter and lack of caring. And they never like it when I sing.
Please don't think this next photo is of a home after hurricane Sandy. {no disrespect to Sandy victims!} Or even that it could be a home that was just ransacked by somali pirates.

It is a room in my actual home.

I won't tell you whose room it is...but the writing IS on the wall.

Now listen, I know a messy room is not the end of the world and that there are a lot of parents who wish their only issue in life is a messy room. Really.
But I am petty and mean. We already went over  that.

My girls are good people. They are healthy. They go to school every day. They work. They are smart and funny and fun to be around....they are who I like to hang out with....NOT in their rooms though.

This is why we can't have nice things. {in.their.rooms.}

FYI: I've threatened to blog about the messy rooms for years. And even more interesting...a certain someone who is a slob is the one who taught me to use the panorama on my phone last week. HA!! That will teach her to educate her Mom.

And an update since I wrote this post on Friday.
I told that certain child that her room must be cleaned TO.MY.STANDARDS by noon on Sunday or her smart phone will be turned into a cell phone. 

See. I still have some leverage. No singing necessary.

And I bet you are all wondering ONE thing after reading this.
Yes, I know where my pickle forks are.

My sanity however has been misplaced.