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You can see my biggest parenting challenge, and I take full responsibility for it! I've never made the boys get in the habit of cleaning up each day. Part of the reason is that their play room is the basement. The mess stays contained and pretty much out of our way. Also, it just takes so long for them to clean up every day. It's easier to do it myself after they are in bed. But it's getting out of hand. And I'm not doing them any favors by picking up the mess behind them!
Can you help with my parenting challenge? I got this Melissa and Doug Responsibility chart and it's been hanging up in the playroom for months but we haven't really used it. Does your family use a similar chart? How does it work for you? When do you check things off? Is there a reward/punishment system in place? If you don't use a chart, what is your routine? At what age did you start their clean up routine? 
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7 comments:
Because we have never had a playroom, we've always cleaned up twice a day. I have found that the fewer toys I let the boys dump out during playtime, the easier they find it to clean up. Now we have, at most, 3 different boxes of toys out at a time. And when it's time to pick up we play "Clean Your Room" by the Movers. Luke still has to be directed when picking up, but Mark can clean it all by himself with the right motivation. For him, that's extra stories before bed. I explain that he can have 2 or 3 if he gets it all cleaned before I'm finished putting Luke in bed for his nap or for bedtime. It usually works like a charm!
Having 5 children it was necessary to implement a chore chart. Each child has a household responsibility aside from their room and their toys.
We also have a pom-pom jar...when they have completed their chores without whining..they get to place a pom-pom in the jar. When the jar is filled, we reward with a special after dinner treat, or perhaps a new movie or game.
We do not believe in rewarding with $$ they will learn that when they get a real J-O-B:)
Since our DD is only 2.5, we haven't dealt with this much yet. But I do find that regular, daily (sometimes twice daily) pick up helps a lot. I have her help me pick up, or I give her a certain kind of toy to pick up. It still takes a lot of direction from me, but at least we are in the habit. I think making clean up a habit goes a long way in minimizing complaints later on.
we use dave ramsey's financial peace university jr chart. it has been awesome and teaches so much for kids of all ages...
I would suggest not punishing the kids for not completing their choices. By punishing them, it ends up becoming a "reward" for this misbehavior. Instead, I would reward their positive behavior, in this case cleaning up. Do not provide a reward for the child or children who choose not to clean up.
Oh...this sounds like my home. I made the mistake of not having them help me from an early age. I wanted to keep the toys "categorized" and it was "easier" to just do it myself. Now I'm trying to undo my mistake and teach them to clean up. We have a similar magnet chart, but it has just become a toy for the girls to play with. Ugh!! We are presently working on a better cleanup routine, but I don't really have any answers yet!
My brothers were lego addicts and had a gazillion of them. My mom started making them put a blanket down before getting legos out so that for clean up you just picked up the edges of the blanket to get all the pieces in the middle to dump them in the lego bin. It worked really well, and then there weren't legos everywhere.
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