The Boy

I've heard for years all the challenges of raising a boy. I'm not talking about their character or raising strong men, etc. I'm talking about laundry and bathroom issues. And I always assumed that all I had to do was be diligent in teaching Camden when he was young, and there'd be no issues as he grew up because I had put the time in early. Well, he's only 7 but I'm tired of putting the time in.

Let's take the laundry for instance. Last week (after many complaints that he never has any socks to wear despite the fact that I bought him 12 identical pairs of white socks when school started), I went into his room on laundry day. There were no socks in his laundry basket, but there were socks in the hallway, socks behind his door, socks under a pillow in the couch, socks in the bathroom, and socks on the other side of the bed. His closet stays a disaster despite all my efforts to keep things neat and straight. In fact,every week when I do laundry, I find piles of clean clothes from his closet that he's put in the dirty laundry basket rather than pick them up.

And the bathroom? Now it's not what you'd think. The toilet stays clean; his aim is good. But the toothpaste is ridiculous. When I cleaned the bathroom last week, there was toothpaste in the sink, on the counter, on the mirror above the sink (much higher than he can actually reach), on the toilet, on the floor, on the hand towel. Seriously. I almost took a picture but decided it was just too gross. And so I clean the bathroom, and the next day it's covered in toothpaste yet again. And let's not even get started on what happens to the bathroom every night when he showers.

So how do I get him to take the laundry and bathroom seriously? Calm gentle reminders haven't worked. Not-so-calm and not-so-gentle reminders haven't worked. Making him clean the bathroom himself doesn't work. And I have visions of spending laundry day searching for socks and cleaning toothpaste off surfaces which should never see toothpaste for the next 12 years.

And just so you know it's not all bad, he routinely does little jobs on his own just because he's sweet and wants to help out. He's also in charge of all socks and underwear on laundry day (although he's yet to complete this task without a whole lot of moaning and groaning). And a couple of weeks ago, he gave away all his birthday money to a local missions project. He also couldn't wait to have a visit from the tooth fairy so he could give that as well. And, really, that quality right there makes up for a whole lot of toothpaste and missing socks.

I took this picture back in October when we were in Illinois. It's from the photo shoot Camden declared to be the best pictures he's ever had taken. They're also the last ones I have of him with all teeth still intact.

50mm 1.4 lens, f2.2, 1/800ss and ISO640.The better way to have taken this picture would have been to lower my ISO to probably 400 since it was at sunset and then lowered shutter speed to compensate.