YOU ARE THE REASON WE DON'T HAVE NICE THINGS!

TV stand, I don't even know what they used on this!

How many of you have strolled up and down and all around through the aisles of Kelly's, Bahamas Design Centre, or Commonwealth Building Supplies, or any other home decor store and saw that beautiful vase and envisioned it sitting in that spot in your house you've been trying to fill? Or a unique lamp that would be perfect for the end table in your living room?  Maybe it's an antique mirror to hang on your entryway wall.  A new couch? A new TV console?

I think we all would like to create warm, comfortable, calming yet beautiful spaces in our homes.  After all it is the place you go to after a hectic day of work.  When you enter your home don't you want to walk into a peaceful home that provides tranquility?

Well not in a house with children!

Well first, I walk into noise but that's a different story!  But when I get home I always see yet another work of art done by one of my kiddies (lately my 3 year old has been the culprit).  No no...not artwork on a piece of paper.  No, that would be too easy. I stand there looking with my famous blank stare at my child then his work of art (on the wall) then back to my child (who by the way has THE biggest smile on this face) and back to the art again.  YOU ARE WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS!  LOL.  Yeah, I said it (not to him but I said it in my mind!).  And I know you think it!  First of all, little boy how did you get that high?  Was your sister your accomplice? Did she kneel down on all fours while you stepped onto her back?  I mean!?... 

We've stopped painting the walls because they will only be filled with pencil and crayola markings. I've stopped dreaming of a brand new couch because it will only become another place for spilled juice and cheese.  I've stopped thinking about replacing my dining room table because it has now become their canvas.  And let's not get started on the carpets!  I am completely embarrassed about them!  Listen, one of the curtain rods in my bedroom is is falling down because it has been ripped out from the wall from two little people swinging from the curtains like little monkeys.  I guess the fan was too high for them to reach??  Although my baby boy can do a bounce so high in our bed that sometimes I feel his aim is to one day really hang from the fan (*blank stare*).

                         
                                   

                                      From l-r; craft table, dining room table

Hey, at least they wrote their last name!

So, I will delay purchasing the really nice things until my kids are older. I know that may sound crazy.  Like, oh why don't you just teach your children how to take care of things. I want a white couch, that's definitely out of the question and wellllll....every child is different. I never once had to worry about my daughter picking up a pencil or a marker to write on the walls. It's something she never did!  And no matter how many times I tell my son not to write on the walls, he will somehow sneak a brush stroke over something somewhere. It's a working process...LOL...maybe he is destined to be an artist!

Someone felt like chipping the paint off the door! Maybe to repaint it??

How do you keep your house from looking like a total disaster? What cleaning secrets do you have? Doesn't it seem like an endless fight with the children? How do you preserve your nice things? :)

Signed, 

Courtesy of Delicate Dandelion

, Candilaria