I feel like my life is spent picking up after my kids. Food off the floor, papers, hell, you name it, they leave it.

It drives me absolutely batty. No matter how many times I ask them to clean up after themselves, they still go on about their day leaving messes for ME to clean up. It's enough to make me want to scream. I just don't get it.


I went on strike not too long ago and stopped cleaning up after them and the house just looked like a mess. I don't know what else to do.

If I won't clean after them, my precious home will look like this in less than 5 HOURS...

Yes! and I only have one

no way

JerseyKRS said:

Brother JersyKRS! I will post a pic of "their" room later so we can compare notes...

I feel for you Comrade, I totally do...

JerseyKRS said:

yes.

better than having hubby yelling

but im getting better.

eg i used to get the rugrat drinks on demand- but i make him do it 4 himself.

except if he eating vegies- then i'll drop everything

ive also told him if his clothes dont make the laundry hamper, they wont get washed.

and he'll have to go nakee


i told hubby to take a chill pill last nite. he grumbles all the time about mess. he thinks our new house will turn into the old dump we left.

but it wont- i LIKE doing housework in the new place- it actually looks done once its done, not like the old mouldy place.

but im not going to be a slave to it either. The kitchen was done last nite after dinner- the clothes on the clothes airer can wait on the table til tonite dammit!! and the rugrats books- if they dont make his bedroom by the weekend- they are mine

ps: he (hubby) does more than his fair share of the house work.

what will the kids remember u 4. a clean house, or a great relationship
goodluck

They need incentives...

Maybe their allowance is affected positively when they pick up. Or maybe constuct their allowance around doing chores. Like they get 5 bucks a week (I have no idea of their age or even what is apporpriate for allowances). They get extra if they do more but lose some if they don't do what they are supposed to do.

I had daily chores as a kid and weekly ones too. I thought they we're really stupid, considering my folks didn't do any I could see. It helps if they see you do chores with them.

No.

Harlepolis said:

prb said:

IMO, I think everyone should do their share. Even couples that don't have kids. It should balance. I cook dinner. Casey should clean up dinner. He puts the food away but if the dishes make it to the washer and if the kitchen was cleaned after dinner it would be a miracle.

prb said:

superspaceboy said:

my husband has always done more than his fair share.

he works long hrs, hard manual work. but will come home and cook dinner if i havent been well during the day. He does all the yard work- but still cooks and cleans.

about the only thing he doesnt do is laundry(but he even does this on occassions)

his step mum taught him to be house proud as a teen.

he really does needs bottling- he just gets a little stressed out at times.

Not really. She has her moments here and there, but by and large my daughter does a pretty good job of picking up after herself. There was one time where, for about a week, I had to constantly tell her to put her toys back in her room. She likes to bring stuff out of her room and play in pretty much every room in the house. She said kept forgetting and then one time she told me that she just didn't feel like it. So I took the stuff she left out and I hid away in my closet. When she wanted to know where those toys were, I told her that the toys that don't go back in her room, she loses.

Yeah, I gave them back.

But only after I let her sweat on it for a few days. We've pretty much eliminated that problem now.

JerseyKRS said:

My kids were being absolutely horrible about their play room, which is where their stuff is meant to be contained in. To the point where they were playing in the hallway because there was no floorspace left in there.
They screamed and cried for at least 15 minutes each time I would ask them to tidy up their stuff. I would threaten, bribe and blackmail and still all they did was scream and cry and throw themselves on the floor. Wally in particular was convinced he could get daddy to do it when he got home (thanks daddy it doesn't teach them anything except how to be manipulative)
After 3 days of no luck, I brought some boxes in from the garage, put them in the play room and asked them if they wanted to keep some of their more favourite things they needed to get them up off the floor. The rest I would pick up while they were at school and give to the salvos.
I came in from time to time
"don't you want to keep the legos?"
"don't you want to keep your Harry Potter books?"
etc
They sorted out all the bits of paper for recycling and Oscar ended up vacuuming because it was fun.
All the McDonalds Happy Meal shit got thrown out along with any broken useless thing. After 3 weeks, things still look pretty good in there!
We might scour through again for things to donate to the bushfire kids.

ZombieKitten said:

my rugrat reckons he is too old 4 happy meals now





at the old place rugrat literally had toys in every room of the house.
we have storage now- so he does put things back...eventually...

he still sneaks books and toys into our room- but i soon send him packing

3 weeks is excellent....maybe they have turned a cnr

ZombieKitten said:

That's how my sister does it.

I used to, not anymore, she has learned to clean up after herself.

oh my god! I work at a library in my town.
I am in charge of picking up books in the children room. I also have to shelved them etc. I swear parents watch their kids like take out all the books from the section that i just finished organizing. when they see look at the mess they just laugh it off..

baroque said:

in our shop its the parents who make most of the mess in the kids section

id prefer them to come to me and say- i cant rememner where this went instead of dropping on the floor.

i also had a parent watch her kid strip the shelves, sit down and read(mangle) the books then walk away. (i only noticed at the end) she did get the death glare

prb said:

its hard but fun working at a book store..

baroque said:

yes it is

im going to miss it

ZombieKitten said:

My mom's best friend had a playroom for her girls. It was crazy up there, but that's where we could play and not have to pick up. hier rooms, however were terrible! I remember not being able to see the floor. One time one of them was gone to camp and I was staying overnight and slept inher room. Her mom basically went in with Garbage Bags and bagged it all up and put it in her closet to deal with when she got home. Sometimes you gotta get drastic!

Sure, he's only 3. It's ok for now.

superspaceboy said:

This is how we run our home - the kids started picking up their own toys as little ones - helped wash dishes from the time they could stand on a chair to do so and so on

chores arnt done - no TV or games or phones or using the car and so on

sure I have to remind them now and again ( they're 17 & 19 now ) but not often because we stood beind our words of what we expected them to do as members of the household from a very young age

JustErin said:

does he help out sometimes?

i used to make a game of it....til he got older- and it didnt work

prb said:

Ya, we'll do it together sometimes.

I won't say I never do, but this may be one spot where I'm a jerk daddy...

Unless it's something very small, my general policy is if I see mess, I will ask only twice for my 8-year-old daughter to clean up after herself. The first time I allow her to do it at her leisure. If she sloughs it off, the second time she must immediately stop what she's doing -- sleeping, bathing, homework -- and clean up. That second time, if she misses something -- toys, clothes, whatever -- I will quite likely throw it in the trash or give it away to some charity. I totally mean that.

I am a way laid back father, but a lingering mess can literally depress me or erode my ability to think straight. I can't have that.
[Edited 2/13/09 15:59pm]

I have 4 kids, 25,15,11 and 5. They each have chores to do, each one is responsible for certain jobs, after they are done. I go in and clean it to my standard. Works for us.

JustErin said:

PaisleyPark5083 said:

LOL....thats exactly what I do....clean up after them to my standard...but they MUST clean up