Giving Big Hearts of Kids

I understand that in households across America, moms succeed in achieving tidy, clean, efficient, beautiful bathrooms for their kids everyday. However, the truth for us lies somewhere between too small and close to HazMat dirty at times.


The three kids share a bathroom and we have had two rounds of Strep in the past three weeks. We decided drastic action was necessary.


The solution began with a trip to WalMart for handsaniter (hanitizer as we call it), antibacterial wipes, new toothbrushes, new toothpaste, and tongue scrapers. $100 later we were armed with what we thought would prevent the spread of this annoying and expenses infection.


Each child got his or her own drawer or cabinet to keep all their personal items. Gone were the days of every one's toothbrushes in the medicine cabinet. We sterilised the entire bathroom, gave a fresh new toothbrush and toothpaste to each child. Everyone got a new tongue scraper.


I was about to congratulate myself on my genius when I spied 87 six damp towels haphazardly hung on the towel rack. I saw with my naked eye every damp Strep cell dividing and spreading from towel to towel. No child of mine every cared if she was using her own towel or if he was, in fact, using the bath mat to dry off.


So our next step was to get out my favorite appliance of all time...my label maker! I threw all those nasty towels in the wash on hot, got out three fresh towels and labeled where each child would be hanging his or her towel for ever more.


Then the real genius hit and I called the kids in to show them my amazing work and to announce the World's Cleanest Kid in the Bathroom contest. Whoever could keep their personal space the cleanest for the next week, I proclaimed, would get the not yet decided upon secret PRIZE.


One week later, I was enjoying the cleanest bathroom of all time. If a child happened to leave his towel on the floor, well, I could tell in a millisecond whose towel it was. The personal drawer space was working like a charm and the kids were still enjoying the newness of the antibacterial wipes to clean the counter each night.


But why is this post called Giving Big Hearts of Kids? Because last night I announced the winner. Not wanting any 'losers' in my house but still wanting to promote a healthy sense of competition, I gave first, second and third prizes. Not really surprising to us, they won in birth order. Jack came in third. He had a couple of unfortunate mishaps in the bathroom but he still won a quarter. Layne, does exactly what she needs to get by but our first born, Kate does it with gusto. So Kate won a Dollar, Layne won Fifty Cents and Jack got a Quarter.


Then the sweetest thing happened when I tucked Jack into bed...."Mom, I want to give my Nickle (aka that quarter I just gave him) to the adoption fund."


Break my heart with pride at his love.

Mom