Gentle Christian Mothers Community - View Single Post - When kids are VERY messy. . . constant reminders abt pick up??

Beth1231 · 07-14-2015, 01:19 PM

This was a good read,I neeed new ideas. My system is pretty straight forward. Sometime in the late afternoon,I turn off the tv,turn on music and instruct my kids to clean up the living room and dining room. If they trashed their bedrooms that day,those get done too. It's EXHAUSTING. I stand over my four year old half the time because he gets distracted in no time. My eight year old picks up a corner and then stands around hoping she's done until I give her another corner or category. Twenty minutes later,everything is fairly neat. Ugh. My two year old happily helps for a little while which is fine.
My mantra is "If it doesn't fit in the vacuum,pick it up." And also, "Finish the task."
When we're all done,I give specific praise and do my best to say yes to whatever they want to do next. And I comment "Now,we have a nice clean floor to enjoy as a family." Sometimes we play charades.
But the actual making them clean up is awful and tiring

I don't feel gentle and kind,I feel unyielding and tougher than I want to be.
But I refuse to let them grow up the way I did. Mom did EVERYTHING and it was terrible for us.
I don't know how to have a less stressful clean up time. I can try the chip system.

07-14-2015, 01:19 PM	#43
Beth1231 Deactivated Join Date: May 2006 Location: Texas Posts: 14,962	Re: When kids are VERY messy. . . constant reminders abt pick up?? This was a good read,I neeed new ideas. My system is pretty straight forward. Sometime in the late afternoon,I turn off the tv,turn on music and instruct my kids to clean up the living room and dining room. If they trashed their bedrooms that day,those get done too. It's EXHAUSTING. I stand over my four year old half the time because he gets distracted in no time. My eight year old picks up a corner and then stands around hoping she's done until I give her another corner or category. Twenty minutes later,everything is fairly neat. Ugh. My two year old happily helps for a little while which is fine. My mantra is "If it doesn't fit in the vacuum,pick it up." And also, "Finish the task." When we're all done,I give specific praise and do my best to say yes to whatever they want to do next. And I comment "Now,we have a nice clean floor to enjoy as a family." Sometimes we play charades. But the actual making them clean up is awful and tiring I don't feel gentle and kind,I feel unyielding and tougher than I want to be. But I refuse to let them grow up the way I did. Mom did EVERYTHING and it was terrible for us. I don't know how to have a less stressful clean up time. I can try the chip system.

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