All I Want for Mother's Day is for the Kids to Pick up their Wrappers!

I mean it.  That's all I want.

Wrappers.  Everywhere.  On the coffee table.  On the sides of the couch.  On the floor beside chairs.  Under the ottoman!

I've tried everything.  It's not that I always pick them up myself, then giving them the message that I will do it for them so they can just leave them there.  No, I will tell them to pick them up themselves.  And then yell when they don't!

It just seems like they haven't received the message.  It's not getting through.  Somewhere, somehow, there has been a failure of communication.

Then I think, I should just buy fruit and vegetables and be completely environmentally friendly, so there ARE no wrappers.  That would solve the issue, right?

No.  Because then there are orange peels and grape stems and banana peels left on the coffee table and end tables.  Healthier but STILL something left for someone else to either pick up or yell about!

And the wrappers aren't mostly from junk food - they're from granola bars and cheese strings.  And juice boxes.  Always, always half-full.

And the funny thing is that I remember very well my parents yelling at me for this exact same issue.

So is it just a child thing?  Children have the attention span of gnats and can't remember to put away their garbage?  Is that it?

Is it just an unfortunate fact of parenting that parents have to constantly correct their kids' behaviour so they can become somewhat civilized?

So yes.  All I want for Mother's Day is for my children to pick up their wrappers.  And their laundry.  And the various charging cords that come with all their devices.  And....

Parenting.  It's not easy.  And it's full of wrappers.