5 year old Interior Designer

Several weeks ago, I decided my youngest child needed her room gutted out. You know, when it gets too messy, they just can’t seem to clean it any more. So I spent several hours in there cleaning out every bit of it. We went through all her cloths in her dresser, all her toys in her room, her books and closet. We sorted all her things into special boxes for easy organization. We moved things around so it would look like she had more room. When it was done, it looked like a whole new room. We even put a mattress up on her bunk bed, (before it just had “skelleton” boards because we had taken off the mattress to use it on the boys bed. So now she has two beds to sleep on. She was so excited. For several days, she even kept it clean. Wow. But then, one day, I went into her room and found a TOTAL mess. She had decided to take everything out of her closet so that she could make it into a play place, complete with a bed on the floor of the closet. (I guess TWO beds are just not enough!!!) I couldn’t even walk through it. She had moved EVERYTHING in her room around, even her dresser. Oh except she couldn’t move her bed . . . thankfully. I just can’t figure out how she moved her dresser. It’s as big as she is. She even took all the organized boxes and rearranged it all. I left for a little bit, cooled down, then went back in and did a quick sweep of her room, put it all back, had a long “talk” with her and hoped that would be the end of it. Not so. The very next day, she did it again. So I figured she must not like the way I had arranged her room, so this time, I had her tell me where she wanted all her furniture; we put it there, and I hoped that would be the end of it. Not so. The very next day, again she moved it around. I was at wits end. But I had gotten wise to her tricks. Instead of finding it after she had done the deed, I would catch her in the act, lessening the clean up afterwards. I sat down and tried to talk through this with her (probably in a very upset way) and hoped I had convinced her this time not to do this again. I went a whole day without a problem. But alas, it did not last. It got worse. Instead of moving her room around, she decided to rearrange MY living room. She moved the couches, the play pen (that I use when babysitting) EVERYTHING (except the entertainment center, it was just too heavy), around. It actually didn’t look half bad except we no longer could watch TV from the couches very well. To make a long story short, this has gone on now for several weeks, but has slowly been simmering down a bit. She goes several days now without rearranging things instead of a few hours. Then we went to her Grandpas house. Thankfully she can’t get out of my sight very much, but nonetheless, she tried to rearrange his living room. She’s five years old for heaven sakes. She is stronger then most of her older brothers! I can’t believe she can even move these things around. But thankfully this time I caught her right away, and made sure it was impressed upon her mind that she could NOT do that to grandpas house!!! We shall see if that actually works.

I know this is a phase, and hopefully we will get through this without too much harm. I have learned how to handle this a little better now without totally blowing my top. I just tell her she has five minutes to put it back the way it was OR ELSE!!!! One time she did try to trick me though by switching the big couch and the small couch around. Like I wouldn’t notice. Ok, I am now done venting. I will probably get up, go in the living room, and find it rearranged because I left her alone for 30 minutes. OOPS!