The inspiration for this blog post is a great book I read last summer......The book is written by Anne Addison called "One Small Starfish: A Mother's Everyday Advice, Survival Tactics & Wisdom for Raising a Special Needs Child." The book chronicles a mother's journey through her son's diagnosis, childhood and journey navigating his school system, family life with siblings and social situations. At the end of each chapter there are practical strategies and advice from this mother's (author's) perspective for other families on a variety of topics..... morning routines, finding therapists, parent self-care, etc. I highly recommend the book!! The Thames Parent Bookshelf has hard copies for you to borrow or you can purchase it on Amazon here.
Anyway, I have learned a lot from the book already and have gained suggestions for ways I can live more stress-free and more organized with my own two daughters. Just today I was thinking about my nine-year-old who is a "stuffer" and has bookshelves and drawers full of papers and miscellaneous things stuffed in very unorganized ways - as a teacher it kills me to see these (what I call messy) drawers. But my daughter has her own system and tells me that she knows where everything is.
Anyway, I have learned a lot from the book already and have gained suggestions for ways I can live more stress-free and more organized with my own two daughters. Just today I was thinking about my nine-year-old who is a "stuffer" and has bookshelves and drawers full of papers and miscellaneous things stuffed in very unorganized ways - as a teacher it kills me to see these (what I call messy) drawers. But my daughter has her own system and tells me that she knows where everything is.
I had a brilliant idea today to buy her storage bins or an organizational cart to help her find places for all of her papers and things. Maybe she's a stuffer because she doesn't have enough organizational tools, I thought! As you can imagine this thought was quickly followed by a dose of reality - she would never use the bins or the cart.This idea brings me to the main idea for this post.....
Thames parents (I'm talking especially to the Thames moms) LOVE to go to Bed, Bath and Beyond and buy all kinds of organizational bins, totes, hooks, and under the bed storage containers for their soon-to-be college students. I'm a mom and I can't resist these things either!! On move-in day you will see moms in the Thames building unwrapping these new organizational tools and neatly folding and putting away clothes, socks, and school supplies into these bins. The irony is.......if your son/daughter didn't use these organizational tools at home in their room they will not use them at Thames.
I know you have the best intentions (just like I do when I want to buy something for my daughter's room) but trust me, after working at Thames for 10 years, I have seen too many tubs, totes and bins go unused in students' rooms. So here is my advice.......buy 1 or 2 bins to satisfy the "mom-back-to-school-desire" but assume that if your son puts his clothes on the floor at home........he will put his clothes on the floor at Thames too and that's ok. With the many adjustments that your son/daughter will have in the fall, maybe clothes on the floor is one battle we can tackle in the spring :)
