I think Jack and I have had one of those pivotal moments that may scar him for life.
Last night he discovered that I haven't been keeping every single paper that he's brought home from school. (I figure he's brought home a ream's worth of paper representing all of the busy work he's been assigned over the course of the year, which is a whole other issue to blog about someday.)
As he descended deeper and deeper into a pit of despair over this ("Mom, my work means NOTHING to you. You threw it all in the GARBAGE! I won't remember ANYTHING I learned, and now I can't live my dream of becoming an engineer and designing stuff. Mom, you've destroyed my DREAMS!"), my guilt-o-meter was off the charts.
Now that we've recovered from our irrationality, I'm hoping that Jack and I can have a rational discussion about this fact: By nature I am a purger and he is a hoarder. Somehow we need to learn to respect these differences in one another and to coexist in peace.
I promise that when Jack starts third grade next year, I won't throw anything out without letting him know up front. But if ever one day Jack becomes a compulsive hoarder (you know, the kind they profile on 20/20), I believe that behavior can be traced back to May 2007.
1 comment:
Margy wrote: "By nature I am a purger and he is a hoarder. Somehow we need to learn to respect these differences in one another and to coexist in peace."
Marg, where were you each time I moved? No, that would only have worked if you stopped and asked me about each little thing before you 86'ed it.
Jack, I sympathise. I'm a life long hoarder too but work with your Mom or whenever in life that you move you will need a few dozen stationwagon loads, 4 pick-up trucks, a 12 cubic yard dumpster, the moving van and a very understanding garbage man.
John, the pack rat
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