Tidy room, happy life
IT was the beginning of the week-long holiday period. Most city dwellers had already made their way back to their hometowns to spend the Chinese New Year break with their loved ones. But my family and I decided to stay put. We’ve had some bad experiences with heavy traffic and weren’t keen on battling through it again. We were looking forward to a quiet but relaxing time at home.
That said, we still needed to fill the time with meaningful activities. So we planned for some simple activities such as cycling around the neighbourhood and other scenic locations. We also planned to explore the city’s popular attractions on foot.
One sunny afternoon, we decided to explore our neighbourhood on our bikes. We agreed to start the journey at 5pm. But at about half past four, we could hear thunder. Before long, it started raining cats and dogs. Our plan just went down the drain. Since we couldn’t cycle that day, we did the next most “interesting” thing — tidying up the boys’ room!
DIVIDE AND CONQUER
up his room before the holiday ended. In fact, he’d been halfway through before he started slowing down and dragging the process.
As it was raining outside, I decided to offer him a helping hand. There were piles of books, files and toys everywhere. He seemed overwhelmed. He kept putting it off and distracted himself with some other irrelevant activities. He just didn’t know where to start and what to do next.
I advised him to “divide and conquer” the mess. He began with the bed. Stuff on and under it were mercilessly attacked. Armed with a garbage bag, I advised him to throw away the things he no longer needed. That seemed to do the trick as almost half of the mess went into the trash.
Adam began to smile when he realised there was a way out in front of him. Once the bed was nicely made, he began working on other areas of the room. In just under an hour, he was able to overcome the stumbling block that had been there for many days.
Once the “dust” had settled, Adam came to me and planted an unexpected kiss on my cheek. “Thank you, Daddy. I was stuck, and you helped me.” They were sweet words to my ears. Later, he wrote in our family chat group, “Now I know how to clean my room systematically. THANK YOU, DAD for teaching me that!”
It was a priceless moment for us. We’d planned to do some bonding via cycling but tidying up the room turned out to be a good alternative.
During dinner, I took another opportunity to remind him about the “mess” in his life too. He could apply the same technique — of dividing and conquering — to tackle other challenges in his life. Start with the easy ones first before moving his way in. Remove the trash and get some help along the way. We can all apply this simple tip.