I think my children are somehow missing the "opposite gene." Not a lot of research has been done on this gene, but evidence proves its existence every single day in my home. I walk into the kitchen in the morning to find an open loaf of bread sitting on the kitchen counter next to dirty knife and an open package of butter. The living room greets me with a scattering of toys on the floor. In the bathroom the light is on and for some reason the water is running although no one is in the room. Bedroom floors are strewn with discarded clothing, pajamas and sock (always socks).
What is this opposite gene? I'll tell you. It's the gene that reminds you that for every action there needs to be an equal and opposite reaction. For example, if you get out the bread and butter to make yourself some toast, when you are done you need to do the opposite of that: PUT IT AWAY! Close up the bread with the little closy-thingie and put it back in the pantry. Wrap up the butter and put it back in the refrigerator. Take the dirty knife and put it in the sink or, God forbid, in the dishwasher. Sometimes the kids make me think they may have that gene after all, but then I find the bread in the pantry without the closy-thingie on it and the bread wide open to the air. So maybe their opposite gene is just intermittently defective?
Whatever it is, as a mother I seem to spend an massive amount of my time either reminding my children to channel that opposite gene or correcting the failings of said gene. It seems very simple that when you go into a room and turn on a light that you would then turn off that light again when you leave the room. But then why is it that the bathroom light it is always on when I walk by it?
Of course, maybe it's not a defective opposite gene after all. Maybe it's just that my kids think that there is some magical creature who will come behind them to clean up their messes, turn off the lights and basically do all the things that they just forget to do themselves like the house-elves in Harry Potter. That must be it! I wonder what their name is for such a under-appreciated, over-worked creature of wonder?
"Moooooom!"