So my stepson, who is 22 soon to be 23, lives with us. This has been alright…I have told him he always has a place with us. What could we do? –After his mom kicked him out once he graduated high school, before he was going into the Navy (which unfortunately did not work out). He does help out by driving his dad sometimes (my husband doesn’t drive due to eyesight issues). We now make him pay a nominal rent, more so to give him some bill paying responsibility because for him controlling finances and making payments has been a huge issue.
So, he has a room at our place…the room that used to be our office. Granted it is a small room so keeping it tidy might be a challenge. Unfortunately we had to move my stepson into the smallest bedroom in our house to accommodate my 3 nephews that live with us most of the year.
We don’t ask for much. I am not a clean freak…I don’t have the energy. But we do try to keep our house sort of picked up, at least trash and dishes…
But my stepson! His room is almost like a garbage dump or a very trashy hoarder’s house. We have asked him numerous times, please keep the trash picked up, keep the dishes picked up, at least, so the place doesn’t stink and we don’t get critters. Nothing gets through to him. My husband is really pissed. The smell emanating from my stepson’s room really gets to him. It can be bad at times (this is coupled with the fact that my stepson doesn’t shower as often as he should…or do laundry/wear clean clothes). I know we set a better example for him than this. We can’t say we ‘raised’ him because he lived at his mom’s the majority of the time. But we did set a better example than infrequent showering, wearing dirty, stinky clothing, and living in a trash heap.
Ugh! Yesterday my husband told him that if he didn’t clean his room he was going to post pictures of it on Facebook, to maybe shame him into cleaning. I thought my stepson was picking up his room; I thought I saw him carry out a trash bag. I don’t know because when I went in there today, to shut the window so I could turn on the air…the room looks like this:
GROSS! Trash! It is the trash that gets to me the most. At least throw that mess out, into the trash so the moldering stinkyness can go with the garbage truck. His girlfriend, a self-proclaimed clean freak sleeps in there! I don’t know how she can. It boggles the mind. If my husband’s house had looked like that when I met I would ran far away (and I definitely wouldn’t be going downtown if you know what I mean). And I am not a clean freak…
Mind you, he had the whole day off work yesterday and didn’t seem to work an inordinate amount the week prior (seemed to be home lots). I doubt shaming will work…I really don’t feel too good about the whole shaming aspect anyway. If I had the energy I would just clean that room myself and charge my stepson an exorbitant FEE. But that would only be a temporary solution.
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