apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

This explains everything. Now I know what to tell my husband when I've lost my keys yet again.

I had to look at this picture for quite a while before I realized that there were actually a couple of kids in it! PLease may this never happen in my house I would be unable to breathe for a week.

you'd think kids would get sick/bacteria etc. in a house like that

And yet, isn't there something to be said about creative chaos?

I believe a fantastic collection of books that are made readily available to children certainly helps to foster a love of reading. I know that my mother did that for my brothers and I, and we are a web designer, a writer and an English teacher, respectively.

That's not creative chaos, that's squalor. Books are great but they don't have to be covered in dust, dog hair, mold,crumbs and grime.

Hi everyone - this is just a Flickr photo to illustrate a messy house, it was not used with the original article. I also think there's a big difference between dirty and messy and this kid's room looks (perhaps typically) very, very messy, but I'd hardly call it squalor. Dog hair, mold, crumbs, grime? I don't seem to have the same magnifying glass FantasticMrFaux has.

I'm sorry people got hung up on the photo, I was hoping readers would focus on the content.

Carrie

Besides the dirt and grime and whatever else may be living in there, all those piled up boxes would be very tempting for a child to climb.
I shudder to think what would happen if those kids needed to make a hasty escape through all that.
So many accidents just waiting to happen in this picture.

I put my hand up to say I'm very much to blame for my daughters messy room - She has toooooo!!! much stuff.

Every three months we pull her room apart and clean it out, started a new rule this year, she gets very little new items, slowly we are paring it down.

Have you ever stepped on some kids toys Ouch! they hurt the bottom of your feet.

We have a big clean up day tomorrow - give me strength.

If you are about to have a baby, please for your own mental health don't buy much for them, they really don't need it. My 5 year old still goes to our kitchen items and plays with them more than her own kiddy kitchen items.

If I had my time over, I would only buy a quarter of what I have bought.

Alot less is easier for the parents to clean and for the child to clean up.

An orderly house refers not only to mess, but to the chronological order of the day; children do better in households where they wake up at about the same time, eat meals at the same time, and have a set bedtime that is sometime before the collapse from exhaustion at 11 p.m.

So in otherwords, no kidding. This study focused on mothers who were educated and intelligent, excluding mothers who had very little education or intelligence. In those middle-class or above homes, those which had a schedule and a place for most things produced the most successful children. Shocking? I think not.

When AT uses these flickr photos, do the owners know what the photo is used for?

I'm skeptical about how a kindergarten study correlates to reading in general. Think how many writers turned to books as children because their home lives were chaotic.

I suspect that at a young age, reading ability has to do with whether your parents manage their time well enough to read to you. But that doesn't necessarily make those children better readers five years later.

It's no wonder the kids who lived in orderly homes were better readers...
...kids who live in squallor like the photo above couldn't find a book in that house if their life depended on it - much less a comfy place to sit and read or their homework for school.

I tend to think I turned out just fine--top 1% for all standardized tests, Oxford, currently in Ph.D. program, read about 300 pages per week of dense academic prose, and write approx. 80 pages per semester-- and my room always looked at least as bad as the picture. There was always "creative chaos" and I think it was beneficial. I wonder how this desire for an ordered life relates to the over-management trend so railed against recently in the press, where children are carted off from one hobby to the next without time for being a kid.

Also, like Lisa, I doubt the correlation to lifelong reading habits. My parents (both of them, not just my mother) read to me constantly despite a hectic and ever-changing lifestyle. I still didn't read on my own until later than my peers. I think the best argument is HereOrOverThere's-- those toys are painful to step on!

That room's not so bad. I was an awful housekeeper when my son was little - we lived in squalor. We all juggle our time according to our current priorities, and at that time housework was at the bottom of the list for me - after single parenthood and being a university student. We spent many evenings curled up together in his bed in his dirty room, reading his favourite books over and over and over again. No regrets.

My room was always like that when I was a kid. My mother taught me to read when I was 3, and I consistently had the highest reading age, spelling skills etc in my school, so maybe housekeeping skills aren't everything.

Also - it was my room. The rest of the house wasn't like that, but the only way my mother - a single, working parent - could keep the place nice was to confine kiddy chaos to one space. It was pretty bohemian though.

Wow, people, AT seems full of unfriendly commentary lately...

I grew up in a neat house with many books, my parents and grandparents read to me constantly. I only learned to read in first grade and was a very reluctant reader at best until age 9, when something clicked.
My best friend also lived in a tidy environment with many books, and boasts of having learned to read at age three.

The difference between us? Not sure. We're both college professors.

Early reading skills are not everything.

Both my kids (7 & 11) are prolific, proficient readers, but the older one did not really pick up and take off as a reader until 2nd grade. I made a pretty conscious effort to not force him to learn to read, as I never wanted reading to be a chore for him. (I of course read TO him everyday). Was the house neatness or lack thereof part of his reluctance to learn to read? I don't think so, as his younger brother took to reading very early and in 2nd grade now is reading books of a 7th grade level, and the neatness level in our house has not changed dramatically over the years.

What I HAVE noticed is when the playroom gets out of control like the picture in this post, the kids are less likely to actually PLAY in it - so keeping up with the pickup up actually keeps them in there DOING something rather than watching a video...

Yes that room is messy but to the people freaking out about it, take a look at the rest of the flickr photos. Those kids look like they have a great life.

Wow. Lots of presumptions being made here. I'd like to see a show of hands of those most critical of that environment pictured who have young 2 kids, please? As a mom of 2 healthy, creative, intelligent, happy boys, here's my take. My first-grader is just now learning to sound words out and read. It is difficult for him. My husband and I are both college educated and both read for our own pleasure. We have read to our boys since they were about 12 months old. Every day. We have a bookcase full of age-appropriate books available in their bedroom and besides the bed and their clothing and soft animals for sleeping, that's it. Toys are located elsewhere. My house is ordered, though definitely not always tidy, and our day is ordered: consistent routines every day. It doesn't have JACK to do with his reading. Also, BTW, reading by Kindergarten age doesn't have ANY future prediction of any kind of success later in life. I am a keen observer of and supporter of my children and their talents, so they will turn out just fine. People get so hung up about reading that it's no wonder that researchers are just chomping at the bit to find some sort of link so that worried parents can have something to latch on to. Why don't those researchers come over and tidy my house for me and make themselves useful while my sons and I read together?!

Again, I didn't intend for everyone to get so fixated on the photo. (By the way, FantasticMrFaux, the Flickr photo is tagged for use under a Creative Commons license). The original photo that ran with the story was a close-up of two children being read to by their mom, but I didn't think depicted the study at all.

Growing up, our home was rather neat and orderly, but my own room was a wreck (not too far off from the kid's above). I hardly lived in squalor and, look ma, I can read!

Carrie

Carrie, thanks for fostering the great discussion. I'd like to point something out that hasn't yet been mentioned. In a two-income household, Moms and Dads have a limited amount of time at home.

Should that time be spent:
a.) Neurotically tidying up playrooms and scrubbing baseboards to control what some posters call "squalor"?...
OR
b.) Reading to your child and spending quality time learning and playing together?

As a busy working Mom, I have make a choice between keeping my house looking as nice as the posts on AT, or spending time with my son. I choose spending time with my son.

Well this makes me happy on so many levels, I can now back up my ocd to my MIL. I have two children(3yr,8mo) I always suggest less toys or cheap crappy toys for that matter sure you want to buy them something get something that will last and worth it, book and paints are always fine! I love my house clean I know my children will make a mess and thats fine but they also need to learn to clean up after them selves. And unlike other mom in our playgroup my oldest will help clean up others toy rooms before we leave a playdate!

And yes I might be slightly over the top with order in my home... but well thats just how it is going to be, but when we are having art time well then I back off the glue/pant and markers can go on anything... after all it will be washed off any thing that is not paper when she is done!

wow, some people have some serious clean/clutter issues! squalor, really? merriam webster defines squalor as the state of being squalid which is defined as "marked by filthiness and degradation from neglect or poverty." seems rather excessive for a messy room - messy not dirty - completely different things. which i guess is my point of view as a messy person - my house is messy and so is my mind - but it is muddled with many different thoughts not just muddled. i cannot stick to a schedule and therefore my 3 yr old is not on one either - but she has a better vocabulary than any of the 3 yr olds at her montessori school, she is starting to sound out words and hopefully will be reading by 4 as i was and i grew up in a messy home.

That's not squalor, that's just messy, really messy.

I can't believe how incredibly classist this study is. How totally shocking that a well educated, stay at home mom that time to keep a home in order might also have time to read and influence their child. Let's make more studies up to make single, over worked mothers feel bad about themselves.

It seems to make some sense. Moms/parents who are intentional about their home are probably going to be intentional about reading to their children as well.