Monday

I'd Give Him 4 Days to Survive in the Desert

In celebration of  Spring Break this week, I asked my hubby to fetch my son's lunchbox from his backpack in the laundry room, so I could wash it out.

He was gone for a while and I heard him call in a disturbed voice, "Can you come here for a minute?"

I walked into the laundry room to see this on the floor:


I give you the contents of my child's backpack:

2 keychains (without keys)
4 broken pencils
3 Mardi Gras necklaces (claimed by the toddler)
4 wrinkled bookmarks
1 paper nickel
1 snowman picture frame sans a picture (possibly my Christmas present?)
5 smashed granola bars
1 Mardi Gras baby (claimed for luck by the older sister)
2 dusty, dirty zip lock bags full of rocks (pretty disturbed by this one)
1 Squirmie Wormie
1 Thanksgiving macaroni necklace
2 pixie sticks (still containing pixie)
1 Valentine's card
2 pieces of a candy cane (which I had to talk my son out of eating)
1 paper hat
1 zip lock bag full of crushed graham cracker crumbs
1 Mattel Classic Football game from the 1980's
1 Disney Cars notepad

And one very ashamed mother who will not send granola bars as a snack choice any longer.

What's in your child's backpack (closet, under the bed, secret stash)? 

I dare you to go look. 

54 comments:

Heather said...

Ha ha! I have found similar things in my girl's backpack.

PMKU said...

I love it! I've got a second grader and he doesn't hang on to stuff so far. lol

Anonymous said...

I've shown you the contents of my purse many times with no shame, but I dare not show you what's in that backpack for fear of the "bad mother" title I might earn, lol.

jennybek said...

I don't even want to know what is in there. In this case ignorance really is bliss...and possibly tetanus.

Tammy said...

If I was at home I would go look. But on any given day, my daughter has a collection of "lost" treasures she has obtained from all over her school. Of which, her favorite item was a pencil sharpened all the way up to the eraser. Add to that paper clips, hair accessories from others, and rocks from the playground!

Dawn @ simply transparent said...

Sorry no chance I'd find the same thing..I'm ocd about things like this..only because a long time ago my niece stored her Easter basket in her closet and my sis thought a skunk died in her house for a whole week..until she found the basket w/ the decorated eggs.

Heads up..it's comin again.

The Mind of a Mom said...

Ya, um No, I don't go there anymore! I just tell her it is time to clean it out. I make her go into the garage and empty it out and then she can go through the contents right beside the re-cycle bins and garbage bins. And whatever is not half eaten, squished or once living can come back in the house! :o)

Muthering Heights said...

Oh my...he sounds like quite the collector!

Keeper of the Home said...

One question...did he ever find the lunch box???? *grin*

Barefoot Studios Ok, LLC said...

Well, it's just so refreshing to hear there are others out there like my son!!!! But it's the backpack, the lunchbox, his pockets...etc.! I refuse to wash anyone else's laundry with his because it doesn't seem to matter how many times I check his pockets...something always sneaks out in the washer...or worse...the dryer!

Thanks for sharing...you made my day!

Amy said...

That's hilarious. Pretty sure he'll get a kick out this this when he's 20 and reading old archives of your blog.

Emily said...

Love it! You have a packrat for sure! My 6-year-old daughter's stash shows up in the car on a regular basis. She smuggles treasures out to the car whenever we go somewhere, and then never brings anything in. Because our van has tinted back windows, I don't see what's in the far back seat unless I'm intentional about looking. When I cleaned it out today, I brought in a whole Walmart sack of miscellaneous beanie babies, candy wrappers, colored pencils, dirty socks, books, paper, and several pieces of miscellaneous trash. Hmm.....

Candy Graber said...

My husband is looking at me funny right now, because I am laughing so hard! Only because I just did this not too long ago with my 7 year old. I found 2 disturbingly large rocks in his back pack. The scary thing was he had no idea how they got in there!

Just say Julie said...

I think that matches my son's. Except we also had a few rocks (for his "collection" in the back yard) and a random car reflector that he found on his walk home from school. He's been hoarding the breakfast bars instead of granolas though.

Melonie said...

Hmm, you've reminded me that it's been a week or two since I last went through my daughter's backpack..... I think I'll keep the camera handy. ;-)

Unknown said...

Don't you worry, I've seen worse.

When I taught middle school, special ed, I had a student who put an ice cream sundae from Sonic (we went on community outings for field trips, to practice ordering, etc) in her backpack on Friday afternoon.

Monday morning? YEP! Still there.

WHAT A MESS! HOW DO YOU MISS THAT?!?!?

Unknown said...

The last time we did that with my nine year old son we had to throw away the backpack. We found out that he's not a fan of bananas and apples (weeks after they were given). I probably should detail what else we found because we're pretty sure it's a crime to be in possession of stolen property -at least that's the only reason we came up with why he would have staplers, erasers, random cd-r's, in his backpack.
He now has to empty his pack every afternoon on the kitchen counter.
Best of luck in the future!

ginger said...

Contents of my 12 year old daughter's book bag :
41 writing utensils (that's when I stopped counting, anyway...)
5 big erasers
1 broken clarinet reed; 2 empty reed cases
music theory book
math workbook
vocab workbook
student id
note cards
6 folders
1 spiral notebook
1 library book
1 pleasure reading book
yearbooks from the last 3 years(?)
untold # of loose papers (don't get me started...)
1 SweetTart
What can I say? The girl loves to write & she loves her some SweetTarts! And I love her.

Karla said...

That is hysterical!! :) My boys have "Mystery Boxes". I think they got the idea from Blue's Clues years ago. I actually have been brave enough to look in there a few times. They are extremely protective over them! They are 5 and 7 years old.

Thanks for sharing! Too funny!

~Karla @ It's The Little Things...

MahoneyMusings said...

Ha! I just looked through my 7 year old daughter's on Friday. She had 7 Webkins in her backpack.

I wrote a similar post about what I found under our livingroom couches.

http://mahoneymusings.blogspot.com/2008/09/going-on-treasure-hunt-mahoney-style.html

Why is it the husband always finds these dark places of forgotten cleaning?

Oma aka Meme said...

and then there are the pant pockets- boys and toys- and little girls do the same-
thanks for sharing a wonderful memory
hugs from Meme

Anonymous said...

I'm not about to go into my daughter's backpack, but this is what I found when I changed the sheets on her twin sized bed this afternoon:

41 toys of various sized, to include a My Little Pony and a Hannah Montana Barbie doll.

5 pillows - 2 bed pillows, 2 decorative pillows, and a "tv pillow" (the kind with arms)

3 paperback chapter books

6 hardcover story books.

And I wondered why she hasn't been sleeping well!!!

Anonymous said...

That is too funny! I know this will happen with me in the future with my little man. He has to take something with him everywhere we go.

Shell in your Pocket said...

Well, backpacks are fine. But, I did look in my first graders drawers the other day...and found a salt and pepper shaker and bandaids :)~
sandy toe

Anonymous said...

I recently found the blue remains of an exploded yogurt container in my seven-year-old's backpack (that he knew had occurred)--the backpack is officially dead. The rock collection is a big deal around here--he is convinced they are dinosaur fossils and hunts persistently at recess. He has saved them because he is equally convinced that we are going to take them to our local childrens' museum to be put there on display so he can be recognized as the discoverer of fossils on the school grounds. I also found mysterious pieces of marked-up paper. Since we do not have a Wii or Playstation2 or XBox, he has started a collection of fake electronics. We've had a lot of inside recess and apparently he and his friends make paper versions of the games and "play" them inside at recess. His teacher is quite amused by their creativity. We do a clean out at the end of each week which does save the yogurt from rotting over the weekend :)

Bailey's Leaf said...

Two coloring book, a couple of winter hats, a Leap Pad cartridge, a bracelet, a jewelry container, a shiny pencil from some occasion that I'm not sure of and a pair of gloves.

My daughter is the collector of books. When the backpack is abnormally heavy, I know that I need to go in.

Hohni said...

I just cleaned upstairs yesterday. Son had NOTHING but dust bunnies under his bed (where do they come from??) and daughter had a purse under hers. Ic can't believe that's all I found!!

Kate said...

Oh, my word. I remember one year my mom decided to clean out my brother's backpack just before school started after summer break. Apparently, he never ate his lunch on the last day of school. She found a container of yogurt and a ham & cheese sandwich. They had been sitting in the backpack in his closet for two and a half months! Eeeew.

~Kate
"Which Proverbs 14:1 Woman?"
http://proverbs14-1.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

LOL! I am too afraid to look.

Bridget said...

Oh, those smashed granola bars are the worst! Trying to get all of those crumbs out of all the backpack crevices!!! Blech!

Anonymous said...

I shouldn't even mention that I clean out the backpack daily. But, in my defense, she's only in kindergarten. I'm sure in a few years, I'll open it one day and find a mess similar to what you came across. LOL

Michelle said...

My son eats the granola bars. There's usually four or five books (God bless him, he loves to read). But I get the odd stuff too. It's usually get opened half bags of chips that have become crumbs falling all over, recently there was half a piece of sandpaper and we often have rocks as well. This weekend it was a chunk, and I mean a good sized chunck of asphalt. I asked why he had that and he said Grandpa told him he couldn't keep it.... but, really that still doesn't explain why.

~*Michelle*~ said...

Hmmmmm, let's venture under my 6 year old daughter's bed.


First you would have to fight the three pound squirrel, oh wait that is a dust bunny.

three pairs of underwear, and no I will not sniff them to see if they are clean....toss in hamper.

the crust to her last two sandwiches that she snuck into her room.

a box of gawdy jewelry that her grandma pawned off on her at her last visit.

two straws

seven balled up mis matched socks.

eleven broken crayons

a not so well liked birthday gift from her Sept. party.

Moon Sand pile

yikes, I need to be a better housecleaner.

Alice said...

we don't do backpacks anymore, but i do recognize that bag of smashed-into-powder graham crackers. we've had a few of those ourselves in the past. the absolute worse thing my son ever brought home in his backpack - and left there for some days before i found it - was the remains of a fast food lunch salad with blue cheese dressing that he put in his bag hoping to finish off another day. it started off in a styrofoam leftover box, but by the time i found it the box was smashed into a bajillion pieces and lettuce and blue cheese grease were all over everything. new backpack coming right up! - ROFL. love your post today :O)

Niki Jolene said...

I'll match and out-do the contents of my purse anyday!

LOL

:)

Janelle said...

Last week my 2 year old daughter decided to stuff every pair of panties she owns (and it's a lot since we're potty training) into her backpack and take them all over town with us.

Pam and Jen (The PJs) said...

Some of the comments reminded me of a day in November when my 3YO daughter informed me her pumpkin had died. She had taken her personal size gourd to her room...oh my goodness...it was horrific...I've actually got pics somewhere...so gross. She had put in her oven :).

Lori R said...

Umm yeah. Did that over winter break. Don't want to do it again. It was foul. And I should mention, he's not a little guy anymore. Nope, apparently big cheese 16 year olds can't be bothered with eating sandwiches or clearing out their own stanky backpacks.
http://lorirad.blogspot.com/2009/01/something-rotten-this-way-comes.html

Anonymous said...

OMG, this is like my son. He keeps everything, and considers them all "treasures." ~sigh~

Anonymous said...

I picked my year old up from preschool once to find a cereal bowl in his tote bag... guess he stuck it in there in the van as he was finishing breakfast. I was kinda embarrassed. But I was really embarrassed on the day I picked him up and he told me about the whine cork he found in his pocket and showed to his teacher. We had given him the cork after a special family dinner where we had had whine. The kids love to watch the corks float in water. Guess he wore the same pants to school the next day. Embarrassing on so many levels!

Annikke said...

What I am gaining from this post is that not only should I wash out the lunchbox - I must make it a priority to clean out the backpack as well!

The Source said...

What's in my kids backpacks? Well...one twin has probably got thirty squashed-up, crumpled pages of assingments that he HASN'T turned in yet and the teacher will ask for before the end of the grading period. No idea why he does that.

nicole said...

I'm fairly certain my daughter's (kindergarten) would contain much the same. I choose not to look as often as possible.

Tracy said...

This is GREAT!!! The baggies full of rocks...NOT surprising to me!!! My 6 year old is a huge collector of rocks and sticks, and anything lese that seems just ridiculous to mom! Daddy gets it...but mom doesn't! CUTE.

akawest said...

During Christmas vacation one year, I decided to clean out my daughter's backpack. In one of the pockets I was met with orange goo. It took me a while to figure out what it was. I now know,if you leave an orange in a backpack for months, it deteriorates, leaving a sticky mess.

This must be my payback for being an extremely messy child.

Sarah said...

Ah yes! Boys and their backpacks are a sight to behold! You can at least see the holiday themes through what he has learned in the past 6 months, even if he hasn't cleaned them out! LOL

flowerpot said...

Once when I asked my daughter to put something in her backpack before school, she replied, "It won't fit." Astounded, was I. This is a rolling backpack! I began to pull items out of the backpack. When I got to the petrified remains of a cream cheese fold over sandwich, I walked away. I'm not kidding. The "sandwich" was hard and green and ... long overdue for the trashcan. We now instigate backpack cleaning on a semi-weekly basis. LOL

momstheword said...

This is so funny! I will have to ask my kid's what they're keeping in their backpacks, lol! (Mine are much older and their packs are much heavier).

Anonymous said...

Oh no! I was that kid! I was TOTALLY that kid!

Darla said...

SNOOORrrrrT! I am totally not lookin in my child's backpack.

You can't make me. huh uhhhh

Upstatemamma said...

Big Brother has a box in his toy bin of all his treasures and I have no idea what is in there. It is insane. It gets bigger all the time. I cannot imagine what his backpack is going to look like next year. :)

Charlotte said...

Fun. It takes me back to teaching school. I had one boy whose desk was always full of odds and ends and whatever else I was missing :)

Thena said...

I have a eight-year old girl and a eighteen year old boy. I clean out my daughter's backpack every weekend. But I don't dare even go in my sons room cleaning or looking under the bed. lol

Wani said...

hey - granola bars are awesome! or at least I thought so... now I'm going to question everything! ah! JK! Funny post!