The disappearing act

I had a habit growing up that just about drove my mom crazy.  I would borrow her things and somehow those things never made it back to where I found them.  Remember when Fred Flintstone would come home from work and yell......."WILMA!"  Well that is how my mom sounded when she discovered her things missing.  I'd be all cozy somewhere in the house when I'd hear........"AMY!"  I didn't intentionally take my mom's things and not put them back.  I'm just a very "Good enough" kind of gal (still am).  When I went to put her things back if something were to go in the bathroom cabinet, I'd return it to the banister - right outside the bathroom thinking.......Well that's close enough to the bathroom cabinet, good enough!  Fast forward my life 20 years and I am raising a son who does the same thing to me!  Pay back is a real pain.  Just the other night Jay wanted to borrow my scrapbook markers.  I showed him where I kept them and gave him explicit instructions to put them back right where he found them when he was finished.  At the end of the night I found them about 10 feet away from where I kept them, sitting on a table.  When I got after Jay he looked baffled, like putting them in the vincinity should have been good enough.  I did give him a taste of his own medicine, however.  I "borrowed" his toothbrush and placed it in the same spot he put my markers. That evening when he went to brush his teeth he didn't know where his toothbrush was.  I used the opportunity to show him how it feels when you go to get something that is yours and it's not there!  I think I proved my point but I know I still have a long road ahead of me.