Conspicuous Consumption

Messy little boys...

Now that I have one week between summer school being over and the fall semester beginning (:pant::pant:), I've taken a moment to do things around the house. I have to get ready for my service learning classes and keep studying for my Italian language exam this fall, but if my house is a wreck, my mind is a wreck, too. (And no, I'm not a neat freak. I just operate on the Broken Windows policy.) I went into Dante's room to clean, because I figure this is the only time I can clean it and it actually stay that way for a few days. Slowly but surely I'm bringing him around to taking care of his own things. Sacking them up and making them disappear for a few days usually wakes him up. He needs plenty of storage bins, and then the boy does OK. Just don't ask him to sort anything yet. So I'm toodling around his room, and I notice that we haven't gotten into the two giant bags of his fall and winter clothes that came back with him (he's in KY, by the way, until this weekend). I had already handled the spring/summer stuff, and boy was that a workout! It required a trip to Target to get a couple of their storage options.

I know I sent him down with plenty of clothes--not really more than he needed, but enough so that the inevitable pants rip or destroyed shirt wouldn't leave him short. I try to have enough clothes for about two weeks. I don't know why that's my golden time frame, but it is. And then a few extra "play clothes" for really down & dirty play times. He came back with enough clothes to cover four children.

Apparently one of the ways that Nana competes against Daddy (and vice versa) is to outspend the other. The boy has so many clothes, they came to me in two giant plastic tubs. I spent the first few days he got back wading through them and picking out the ones that were obviously too small; and he's still got more. He literally could go about 2 months without ever wearing the same thing twice. His taste in clothes, however, runs exactly like mine: I have a few favorites, and I wear them to death until they wear out. I can't help it. I like that shirt. It's clean. Wear it again! The bane of his closet is the "shorts outfit". You've seen them, I'm sure: the little basketball outfits with matching jersey? He's got a million of them. They're all over the place.

It's not my job to tell people how to spend their money. But for godssake, why not dump it into a savings account or buy him a bunch of books, or something? His daddy already bought him two new pairs of shoes for school (which he actually needed). He still needs a coat for West Virginia winters, but I swear I'm not buying him another stitch of clothes until that stuff in that closet is 1/3 the size it is now!

-- Virgil