August 8th, 2009When I moved to California, I was aware of the possibility that I could experience a few earthquakes, but no one ever warned me that I would also experience hurricanes. What? No hurricanes in California, you say? I beg to differ. In fact, there are three of them I have experienced — Hurricane Felicity, Hurricane Chase, and Hurricane Nick. On a good day, they can be downgraded to a tropical storm, but on a bad day — watch out. Sometimes all three of them collide and you can guess what that leaves my house looking like.
I am so envious of the mothers who can keep a clean home, one that they don’t have to apologize for when a friend unexpectedly stops by or a repairman comes to visit. The last repairman who came by told me to stop apologizing because his roommate was just as messy. (To my defense, I was straightening up the house when he arrived, but one of his appointments had been canceled, so he came three hours early.) And when we do know someone is coming over, it’s like a mad dash to get the place looking halfway presentable.
One way I get the kids to help clean up is instilling a sense of competition in them. Whenever I tell Felicity and Chase that whoever cleans their toys first is the “winner”, they race against each other to put their things away. There’s no real prize other than being declared the “winner” and the sense of peace with seeing that a section of the table or floor has been cleared off. Unfortanately this sense of urgency doesn’t seem to extend in everyday life. I have the hardest time motivating them to clean sometimes. The majority of the time they end up playing with the thing I just told them to clean up.
I’m starting to experiment with a “2 chances” rule. Anything not cleaned up after I issue a second warning will be taken away for a certain number of days. I haven’t really had to enforce the rule yet because by the time I say, “second chance,” they get scared enough to put the item away.
How many of you moms struggle with this? Do you have any tips you’d care to share?
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The “2 chance” rule sounds like a good idea. I think I will try this at my house. I have a friend that tried “toy jail” with her daughter (her husband was a police officer). Every time that her daughter would not pick up her toys, they got sentenced to a box above the fridge (this was high enough that a chair could not get to). They would then stay there for a while until the daughter listened. If she did not listen, then they got sent away to charity, if she behaved, then her toys were off “probation.” Some of them were still brand new in the original containers from the store!
Let me know how it works out for you. It works more often than not for me, but I haven’t enforced it every time I’ve issued the warnings. I tell the kids I’m “making an exception this time”.
My grandson is 2 years old and always makes a messy!!
I am teaching him now that before he plays with another toy, that he has to “Clean Up” his puzzles, coloring books and crayons, etc. He’s doing really good at it so far. Let’s see what the future holds.
Messy, messy, messy! My kids always like to dump all the toys out of their toybox.
I tell them they have 15 minutes to clean their rooms. When I go and inspect their rooms, they look so neat and clean.
I thought “WOW” they sure did a good job.
Later, I went to vacuum their rooms and realized that their rooms were so clean because they shoved everything under their beds!
How smart are our kids!!
Growing up, my mom always let us have our own space (usually a small corner in a room) where we were allowed to be messy. My brother and I always had a bins where all the toys were thrown when company came over. It really helped to keep the rest of house neat, and we always felt responsible for our areas. We also had a limit to the number of toys out at one time. I want to say it was three. Of course, as we became preteens, trying to keep out bedrooms clean meant that we weren’t allowed to leave them until everything was put away, and that didn’t always work.
I’ll probably try this with baby on the way. Now if only my husband could keep his things contained…
I think part of our problem is that we just have too much stuff. We’ve been trying to go through and clear out things we don’t use or need anymore, so I can’t completely blame the kids when we don’t have a defined space for everything. I bought some storage bins that have been helping. We lost one of them, though, when Felicity decided to stand on top of it and it broke. When I asked her why she standing on it, she gave me her favorite answer to everything, “I don’t know.”