I have a question. It's a topic that no one addressed in any of the child rearing manuals that I poked my nose into when coping with Child Number One. ( When I finally realised that children don't always do what the books say they will, I threw away the earnest tomes thinking that this might help me discard the 'Bad Mother' label that I'd cemented around my neck. Only after I read, 'Families & How to Survive Them' by Robin Skynner & John Cleese did I finally quit the road to perfection & embrace the more realistic goal of being a 'good enough' parent.)
Rewind to the question. My children love painting, making, shaping & decorating things. They have a large craft cupboard (handing over the largest cupboard in the utility room was one of the most sensible decisions I've ever made) in which all manner of fascinating things are stored. I enjoy a good rummage in there - I think anyone would. Pipe cleaners, sequins, Mod Podge, googly eyes, foil, stickers, stamps, multicoloured ink pads, ribbon, beads, buttons, wool, art straws - I think it's one of the coolest cupboards in the land! BUT!
In England, the architects who designed the majority of the housing stock in our shires would appear to have shared the opinion that people can live in a house without ever wanting to store anything for a reasonable length of time. I lie. In theory, there's the possibility of storage space in a loft, but gaining access to one of these can usually only be achieved with the help of two strong men & a very long ladder. There's also the drawback that the hatch to the loft is usually smaller than any cardboard box you might want to stow up there, so let's just agree that the only things you can sensibly store in a loft are your Christmas decorations.
Most modern houses now assume you wear clothes so a built-in wardrobe is likely. An understairs cupboard is a possibility, but once you've got an ironing board, a vacuum leaner & room for the gas & electric meter reader in it, the storage space it offers is fairly limited.
Are you beginning to wonder if I'm ever going to ask my question?
Children throughout the land make things. Miriam Stoppard & Penelope Thingy urge parents to encourage the creative juices which are rampantly flowing through their children & quite rightly so. Parents & grandparents love seeing rockets made out of plastic bottles, masks from paper plates, cars out of boxes & strange animals if you're a Lula. Clay platters, paper flowers & newspaper trees are tenderly handled & admired by proud parents everywhere. So...here comes the question that the architects plus Dr Spock & his progeny do not address.
Exactly where are we supposed to store all these things?
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