Do You Clean Up After Your Kids?

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• No, I was guilty of it too. It took me only 5 minutes to do what would have taken 30 minutes of chatter, stall tactics, and probable whining if the kids had done it.

• I have never had a problem getting my daughter to clean up after herself, or to pitch in around the house. I taught her at a very young age that she is to take care of her things after she has played with them or she won't have them at all. Ever since she was a toddler I taught her to take care of her laundry, she would get a pile and fold it, put it in the right bucket, or into her dresser. Today at age 6 she is responsible for taking care of the laundry, taking it from the washer to the dryer and turning the dryer on. Then she takes it from the dryer to the laundry bucket. She is asking for more stuff to do. She understands that this is our home and we need to take care of it, if we don't we can't live here.
  I know this didn't help much, but since your kids are so young you can still instill this in them. despite the tantrums they give it will get easier once they know you mean business.
  Take care.
  -Misty

• My son is just about to be 5 and my daughter is 2.5
  I say it is 50/50 in our house

  My five year old is expected to clean up his Leapster that he uses at rest time that he got from his grandma for Christmas. It was a very special gift and I wanted to teach him to be responsible for his things. So after he is done playing any of the games I find or even the game system itself I get to keep for 2 days.

  My two year old actually LOVES to clean. Sometimes I do have to ask multiple times. But it gets done.
  Not thing a horrible threatening way but what if before you child plays with a certain toy...say blocks which are a mess to clean...let them know that you will help them and for every 2 blocks you clean up they have to clean up one. And if they don't help...than any blocks left after your pattern of 2 blocks is done...gets thrown out?
  Thats what i tell my kids.
  I let them know from an early age that its not ok to have a mess because then it is hard to take out the new toys we want to play with because everything is messy. And that although I love to help them to clean up its not fair that mommy has to do ALL of it when it is not all her mess. I point out the other things I love to do for them...laundry, sweeping etc (in reality i may not LOVE it, but it IS something i have to do...and something they cant and really should have to until a much older age) so i kind of let them know that its something i do FOR them so they have room to play and that i would help mommy out a lot if they helped me to clean.

  For some reason 90% of the time my kids dont fuss to clean. they may give a single mark or noise of disapproval but they still get to it.

  good luck!
  and i agree, its really not a big deal right now, they ARE still young. but maybe doing some small things now will help in the transition for when they are older?

  maybe even make one thing they are "responsible" for? and give them wicked praise when they do it?
  we have two small baskets one for each kid where their washed clothes go and its their job to bring it to the top of the stair and put their socks and underwear away and then i do the rest. but just that small step getting accomplished and the praise they get...actually makes them ask to help me with other things, like dusting etc. so they see they are getting the some praise for those things as they get for cleaning their toys...so they see its a really positive thing to help!

  sorry for the novel!

• Yes, I do clean up after my kids. They are 5 month(ok, so he can't do anything) 6 years, and 10 years. Actually my 6 year old has OCD, so he's really good about cleaning up, especially his room. My 10 year old... she hates cleaning up after herself. She may clean up after I've flipped out, but chances are she won't. I do have her doing her own laundry now because I'd ask her to put her clothes away, and she would put the clean clothes back in with the dirty clothes. No, she does her laundry now, and if she runs out of shorts or something, then it's on her. I just need to work more with her.

• Uh, yeah I do not clean up after my daughter much. Actually we're pretty OCD about it. If she plays with one toy (blocks) then that toy needs to be cleaned up before another (puzzle) can come out. It is a rule and we stick to it, otherwise the place would be a disaster.

  My daughter also loves to get her own wipe and spray to clean her little table. She likes to help...which makes asking her to clean up easier!

  I would imagine it would be MUCH harder with 2 kiddos and especially 2 boys. Good luck - hopefully it will improve as they get older!

• Most of the time I make my 4, 12, and 14 year old kids clean up after themselves. Sometimes my 4 year old needs help cleaning something up(like fitting it back in the box), so I will help him if he asks nicely. If he totally refuses to clean up, those toys get put in the garage for a day. I do admit, though, once in awhile if the older kids are at school and I see something that they forgot to throw away, I will do it for them.

• Oh this is a constant back and forth at my house. My daughters are 7, 5 1/2 and 2 1/2. They all know how to clean and can clean. I think it's really important that kids are taught HOW to do chores at a young age because I have a 14 year old sister (the baby of the family) who was always brushed off as being too little to put dishes away because they might break or something and to this day she plays it up, I'm sure she knows how to do things now but she acts dumb and doesn't do it right and my mom just does it for her instead of making her do it because it's less frustrating this to me is insane! She's 14!! So little kids are a little bit different story. I like to pick and choose my battles with my kids. So teaching them how to do things is important but I don't always make them do their chores or clean up their messes completely by themselves. I find they are a lot more likely to clean and clean quickly if I am helping them do the job or if they are given small tasks rather then the whole clean up your room thing all at once. For instance put all the shoes in the drawer, now put all the books on the shelf, then put your coat away etc. This is especially important with my 2 1/2 year old because she can't take in that much all at once and remember what she's supposed to be doing as any little kid. My 2 1/2 year old even has a song she likes to sing while cleaning up, it's called the Cleanup Song- it's really simple she just walks around singing, "Clean up, clean up everybody everywhere. Clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere." It works nicely most times- although I will admit that we have our share of tantrums about not wanting to do it and those are the times when I'll just quickly go through and pick everything up.

  Hope that helps!

• My almost 4 year old knows and understands that he gets absolutely no TV or computer until all his toys are picked up. It took us a while to get to this point because he fought us and whined for probably several weeks, and at first I helped/directed him in picking up. Now, he can pick up all of the toys on his own and knows where they go. My 2 year old sings the "clean up song" which he learned in our church nursery while he picks up, but is fairly inconsistent still as to how helpful he is feeling at any given time.

  It really is a huge fight to get them to understand and sometimes it's not worth the battle based on current life circumstances. Good luck! It's a process and we definitely still struggle with it from time to time.

• I am also guilty of cleaning up after my kids. My boys are 5.5, 3.5, and 1.5 and we have one on the way. Sometimes it is easier to just do it myself but I do make them help. Somedays I envy people who have taught their kids the rule of putting one toy away before you play with the next. But secretly I don't really think it can be done if you have more than one child and they are young in ages. What I do when I am at my wits end because of the mess is tell them that I am going to donate the toys they are not respecting and putting away. That seems to be working. I am going to expect more from them as they get older.

• Your temporary situation isn't going to help your blood pressure in the long run. :)

  Try this: When it is time to pick up, make it a game. How many things can you all pick up in one minute? Five? set a timer and run around.

  Or set a task for one thing. "Let's put all the books away. I bet you can't do it in ten minutes!" Set the timer and help. Maybe you pile the books up by the book case and the kids shelve them. Or the little one runs around picking up books and you help the older one shelve.

  When my kid (almost eight) freaks out about cleaning up, we just tackle one thing. Then he sees how easy it really is and is more amenable to cleaning up the next thing.

  You might be doing most of the cleaning up right now, but it's essential that you get them helping you out ASAP.

  Good luck!