TEENAGERS’ TIDYING SPREE LEAVES MOTHERS IN SHOCK

A spate of tidying by teenage girls has left a small community reeling in shock.

‘I’d just gone into her room to see if I could find any mugs or bath towels,’ one mother reported. ‘We’d run out again as we generally do every two or three days, and frankly, I didn’t have much hope that I’d be able to find the mugs or towels even if they were there. But I opened the door and peeked in – and sweet Jesus! Neat as a pin. And she’d put all the mugs on a tray, too – just as though she was going to take them back to the kitchen herself. And the towels were dry.’  The girl’s mother is currently being treated for shock at a local hospital.

Growing Trend

Mrs Eileen Harper wiped a strand of hair out of her eyes and shook her head. ‘She’s never done this before,’ she confided, ‘and frankly, I don’t know what to make of it!’ Her 15-year-old daughter, Kelsie, is just one of many in this small, tightly-knit community who have gone on what experts are calling one of the most extensive adolescent tidying sprees they have seen in decades.

‘Generally when I go up to her room to put away clothes, I can hardly get the door open,’ Mrs Harper confided.  ‘But yesterday, she had moved almost everything off the floor.’ Mrs Harper had to pause to steady her breathing several times during her interview. ‘Her bed was made!  There was no trash on the floor. All the drawers in her chest were shut. Now you tell me that’s natural.’

Angela McNutty, the mother of 14-year-old Emma, spoke in a hushed, low voice. ‘I hardly ever go up to her room, you know – the smell and all. But I’d heard her up there with the hoover the night before when she was supposed to be out with friends, and that got my suspicions up right away. So when she’d left for school this morning, I thought I’d better check and – she’d hoovered the floor. Even under the bed.’ 

Mrs McNutty is currently organizing a group of local mothers to discuss how best to cope with this phenomenon.  Said another mother who asked not to be identified: ‘If we don’t figure out what to do about this pretty soon, the boys are going to be next.’