For those of you with more than one kid (like me), do you have at least ONE kid who has a clean room?

And if their rooms are clean is it because:

A) You clean it for them.
B) They clean it themselves.
C) The maid cleans it.

Almost nineteen years and I still can’t get them to clean their rooms without *major* yelling bribing.

Thus far, I’m still pretty unsuccessful with or without the bribing.

I refuse to clean their rooms for them.

I would never suggest this to my kids as I’m still trying to teach life skills to get them to show some personal pride and clean their rooms.

But I’d be proud of their ingenuity if they had thought of something like this…

Close To Home© John McPherson

Some day I will post pictures of what happens when we go in about twice a year and fumigate. It’s too scary to show today.

Until then, anybody have any suggestions about how to get them to clean their rooms?

PhilBillPaul and I have spent our years parenting and introducing the kids to all the things we loved to do growing up. We hoped they would come to love some of the same things we do.

Board games. Check.
Card games. Check.
Golf. Check.
Basketball. Check.
Badminton. Check.
Bowling. Check.

We admit it.

We know we are kind of geeky. Yes, that list includes badminton and bowling and we’re not ashamed to admit it. (We have our own bowling balls.)

We introduced them to bowling for the first time in 1995.

The Grunter was six. Look at that steely determination!

Roger Leroy developed her own style.

Wizzy took instruction well. Especially for a four year-old!

They all took to the game and have played on and off through the years.

The last time we all went bowling as a family was probably in 2004.

I know Roger Leroy will love her bangs in this photo. I love everyone’s bangs. 2004 must have been the Year of the Bangs.

One of the things we have tried to instill in them from their very youngest days of Candyland, Uno and Yahtzee is that you must learn how to be a good loser as well as a gracious winner.

Our mantra is “No Gloating” if you are the winner.

We have watched many competitions, been in tournaments and we always like to observe whether the winners are gracious or gloaters. We just don’t like gloaters. Gloating is unattractive.

Don’t misunderstand…we are very competitive.

We all really, really like to win.

I think that is human nature. We aren’t of the parenting style where everyone is a winner no matter what and we don’t have to keep score.

Oh, we definitely keep score!

As summer is ending, we always try to do something special as a family. School starts here in Georgia in just one week. So Sunday night we all went bowling.

We had the requisite quality bowling alley food.

We can’t bowl if we don’t have french fries and other fried food.

The big girls set up lane assignments for the family tournament.

Scary Baby was mad we made her come out late because she’s trying to get back in a routine for school.

She brought a blanket and made herself comfortable. It’s a tough life when you are responsible and your parents aren’t.

Wizzy talked a lot of smack and said she was going to beat all of us. She actually did beat everyone the first game.

She forgot how competitive her mother is. I told her the first game was my warm-up and she better “bring it” for the next game.

I won. Politely. I did not gloat.

Game three – more smack talk. That really just brings out the best in me.

For you non-bowlers who have read this far because you’re polite – it’s always fun if you can get a “Turkey” in bowling. This is three strikes in a row. When I had two strikes in a row, I told Roger Leroy to get the camera ready for my Turkey. A cute little turkey shows up on the screen to celebrate your three strikes.

Did she get it ready? Oh no, she didn’t. Thank goodness I grabbed the camera after my next turn.

Oh yes I did. I got FOUR STRIKES IN A ROW!!

It was delightful to have all the kids witness the old lady their mama get four strikes in a row.

You can see from our scores that we’re not very good. We have fun anyway.

This is how happy they were for me.

We’re still working on the being a good loser thing…

Anybody out there like to bowl? Or find joy in beating their whole family in a good, healthy competitive game?