Messiness is one of those fundamental, universal symptoms of teenagedom. Just like getting heavily into music your parents find incomprehensible, hanging around with people your parents entirely fail to see the appeal of and being certain you’re experiencing every emotion going with more intensity than anyone else has ever felt it, it’s pretty much a given at that stage of life.
BBC 5 Live breakfast show presenter Nicky Campbell isn’t enjoying his daughter’s teenage messiness, however. In fact, he became irate to the point of sharing a picture of her offending bedroom on Twitter with the message: “This is completely unacceptable. You are nearly 19 years old and I am bloody sick of it. I don’t care that you were going to tidy it up. It just really pisses me off.”
It’s a pretty impressive mess, from the piles and piles of clothes to the stuffed avocado, twisted flower lights and turned-on-but-unused plug socket. Not to mention the makeup presumably put in a plastic bag for a flight, then living in it forever, and the wonky magnet on the radiator ensuring every surface that can be messy is.
And is there a more dad phrase in the world than: “I am bloody sick of it”?
Campbell was criticised by some commenters for invading his daughter’s privacy but he assured his 142,000 followers (a great many times) that the picture was posted with her consent and she even helped him get the messiest shot possible. “It’s light hearted and with permission,” he wrote. “I was initially horrified but we laughed and she helped me with the photograph. She is the funniest person I know – she makes me laugh out loud – but is very untidy.”
The internet wouldn’t be the internet without a bit of competition, of course, and other parents were soon chipping in with messes recreated by their own pride and joys. “l’ll take your 19 y/o and raise you my 22 y/o medical student son, who’s been home for ‘minutes’,” wrote one.
And no wonder the parent of this slovenly soul has gone on a cleaning strike.
This collection of drinking glasses salvaged from another bedroom is very impressive.
Good on Campbell’s daughter for pulling out the age-old “I was about to tidy it up” chestnut. Other popular go-tos include, “This way I know where everything is, because if I put it all away in drawers I might not be able to find it”; “you don’t need to be in here anyway” – and “I’m just expressing my character.”
This is the perennial domestic conflict – it’s their room but it’s your house. Psychologists have written extensively about messy rooms in adolescence and the various things they can symbolise. Is it an externalising of the internal stress of shifting from childhood to adulthood? Is it an assertion of individuality and autonomy, drawing a line that says “this is my territory and as such doesn’t need to follow your rules”? Or are teenagers just lazy?
The inability to see (or be bothered by) mess doesn’t magically end with adulthood, though, as this picture of 54-year-old Tory leadership contender Boris Johnson’s car shows. Is that a No Fear branded Bag For Life?!
Your move, Campbell Jr.