to give me your advice.
Those of you that know me know that my personality is very close to what they say about a traditional Leo I can be a bit of an independant thinker ;) or this could be one of the first born children qualities. Who knows it may be a bit of both which leads to why I can be down right stubborn at times (yes I admit it, but sometimes it actually works to my advantage) I am getting sidetracked though the point being that I am generally not very good at taking other people's advice. Bottom line I REALLY don't like being told how to do something! Not unless I ask for advice. So here I am asking your advice. So this is your chance to give it and I will actually listen! I have decided on Sunday I will post my question of the week on what I would like your advice on. My advice to you is to stay on the subject or chances are I will just skim your response, or read it in my head hearing the teacher from Charlie Brown WA WA WAA WA WA WA. Anyway to make a short story long here is my question.
Any tips on how to get two little girls to actually CLEAN their room? Some days it just wears me out, the arguing and excuses!
Sunday, August 17, 2008
I'll give you one day of the week...
Posted by Abby at 6:00 AM
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Yeah, if you figure that one out let me know!!! I am actually trying something new but I don't know if it will work so you can try with me if you like; I am making them go to their rooms around 7pm and having them pick it up and then they can have book time, if it doesn't get picked up in the amount of time I give them lights out, no book time. So far it has worked but its only been 2 days.
Cute pic though! Even with the mess!
I forgot to add, way to go! It IS hard asking for advice, very humbling sp?, great job!
I need some advise on this too. Claire will argue and fight me when I tell her to clean her room. If I tell Truman to clean his room he says okay and gets the job done. How can my kids be so different?!
Lori I read in the book about children's birth order that the second born is always everything the first is not
Oh I shudder to think that Erika had a part in the messing up of this room. Sorry Abby!!
Let me think...My mom use to tell me that if I didn't get it cleaned up she was going to take a trash bag in there and start throwing things away. She did start one time and I ran in there REAL quick and got it cleaned. Something I do is tell the girls that they can't watch T.V., play computer, or just about anything until its clean. Or I set a timer and if its not done in the time alotted then they lose a privelage or even there have been spankings. Hope I've helped. :O)
I seem to be right there with working on that one.
Nope Karen this had nothing to do with Erika believe it or not this is what their room looks like on a regular basis. Which is why that day TOTALLY did not bother me ;)
most children don't understand the concept of cleaning your room. Instead, ask them to each put 5 things away. When that's done tell them they did such a good job that you bet they can put away 7 things. And continue that way. It works!~
Diane's idea can work pretty well. Sometimes you have to refine it a little,ie: put away all of the blocks[dishes, crayons...],hang up all of the clothes..., put all of the shoes where they belong..., whatever needs to be done the most. I also found that kids respond to "let's go clean" better than "you go clean". Sometimes the task seems overwhelming to them and it needs to be broken down into smaller "bites", or shown to be "managable" because we are there,too, to 'lend a hand'. If they have a clock you can use time limits like this: "when the little hand is on-- and the big hand is on--, I want you to have ***** done." Or, like Mandy said."You have --- minutes to do --- or we won't have time for ---" A special reward for having a clean room for --days might work, too. And if they share a room and one is messier than the other, reward the tidy one for keeping their 'side' clean or their toys picked up. Here is a really hard one for most Mom's to do: Lavish praise when they do it right! Make one small diappointed statement when they don't (and say nothing more). Kids like to 'please' but they tune out nagging. They'll get the point after a while!
BTW: I guess the trash bag idea worked on Karen, but I don't remember it. :)
Thanks for all the great advice. I will try some of your tips and report back to what works and what doesnt :)
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