Parents corral stuffed animals

Bailey's bed seems to have a life of its own.

The mattress regularly slides partly off the bed.

When I go to wake up Bailey, I often find her asleep on her sliding mattress. I wonder how she can sleep at such an angle.

The mattress would slip entirely off the bed if it weren't for a nearby table that serves to put the brakes on all the slipping and sliding.

As a boy growing up in St. Louis County, I never had such a mattress. Mine stayed on the bed. Of course, I didn't have a ton of stuffed animals.

Bailey has a lot of stuffed animals, so many that she could get lost under them.

Her monkeys, elephants, bears and other assorted creatures would wedge themselves between the mattress and the wall. That would cause the mattress to keep inching away from the wall. Before long, the bed sliding would begin.

My wife, Joni, and I last year installed netting in the corner of Bailey's room above the bed. That provided a place to store a lot of Bailey's stuffed animals.

But she still had plenty more. Every time Joni and I stepped out of their room, they seemed to multiply.

So the other day, Joni decided it was time for parental action.

She went out and bought some more netting, which we then installed in another corner of her room.

Then it was time to relocate the stuffed animals. But Bailey wasn't thrilled by the idea at first.

She didn't want to part with a single elephant or monkey. She liked having a crowd of stuffed animals on her bed.

She eventually relented, but only slowly. Bailey hugged each and every fluffy animal as if it was the last time she would ever see them.

Some sports teams don't go through such extensive negotiations with even the most stubborn player's agent.

I told her that her elephants and many of the other creatures looked far better perched above her desk than piled haphazardly all over the bed.

But I'm not sure Bailey was buying it.

Over the years, we've recycled some of her stuffed animals, selling them at garage sales. But we've only managed to do so after convincing her that they'll go to good homes.

I know it's only a matter of time until she loses interest in stuffed animals. But for now, her love for these quiet beasts just makes me smile.

It's an everyday reminder that she's still a child. And that's fine with me. I don't want her to grow up too quickly.

Bailey's older sister is a teenager.

One teenager at a time is enough for me.

I can't keep track of Becca's busy social schedule. It's far easier to keep track of Bailey's stuffed animals.

They sometimes migrate around Bailey's room. But for the most part, they don't leave the room. I can handle that.

Besides, the stuffed animals never complain about their home life.

As all parents know, the same can't be said about teenagers. They can't be quiet about anything.

Becca, for her part, wouldn't want to share her bed with a ton of stuffed animals.

Bailey, on the other hand, can't imagine sleeping through the night without her favorite stuffed animals resting around her, including a pillow-like dolphin that's almost as long as she is.

As far as I can tell, Bailey's stuffed animals aren't endangered species. Even crowded onto net shelving, they seem to thrive.

She even has a long stuffed-animal snake that she's wrapped around the curtain rod above her bedroom window. Sometimes, I feel like a game warden when I step into her room.

But I'm not looking to harm any of these animals. I just want to keep them under control.

Mark Bliss is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.