Zone Defense

My birthday present from my husband was a dutch door for my once dining room turned playroom. He just finished making and installing it tonight. He had to make the dutch door, because it is insanely expensive to purchase a pre-made dutch door. I'm sooo excited to have it.

Now my three-year-old can come and go from the playroom as he pleases, and I don't have to worry about 18-month-old breaking out and running wild through the house. He hasn't quite learned the play zones.

Yeah, I have play zones in my house. I get all twitchy when there are too many toys scattered in the living room. The living room is not a play zone. I'm not a neat freak by any stretch of the imagination, some would argue quite the opposite, but too many toys scattered about start to make me feel edgy. So, to allow my children to play with toys and keep my sanity I have designated play zones. The dining room, or as my kids now know it, the "play room" is one of them. I've also given my kids our screened in back porch and of course their rooms to play in. The living room, kitchen, parent's room, bathroom (with exception of when the kids are actually taking a bath) are all no toys allowed. Oh, wait, there is another exception: the baby's stuff. The living room gets some of the baby stuff. This helps me keep a buffer between her and the older kids and also helps me segregate her toys. Kids are germy, mine included. I try to ease the baby into our germyness.

This is my ideal. The structure is there for this to happen in an ideal world, but, like you, we live in reality. There's toy creep. By and large, however, this system means a lot more sanity for me than if we had free rein toy playing. And my dutch door, it's all part of my toy domination plan [insert evil laugh here].