Is it ok to talk about Sunday two days after it!?!
As you know my mom was there and helped me scrub and clean all the darkest corners and places in the house. I was dealing with the “girls made mess” on Saturday, but well, I did it! I could take care of all the house, pick up everything and put in places, clean all the flooring and deal with untidy beds after girls! All nice, when came back from choir show in Smiltene. We had a lovely time with Nora and Mario – celebrating my name day.We were up until 4AM.
Sunday. We started our morning at 10AM with the kitchen sink plumbing issues, that ended with broken pipe and flood! Well at 11AM I made breakfast for guests and family and sat down at 1 PM with a cup of coffee to chat with Nora and Mario.
We spend all day inside cause weather was terrible. I spend time in kitchen/dining chatting & cooking & chilling… after walking into the living room….. at 4PM I was shocked!
What a mess! The mess was made by girls!! I can’t even tell you it felt like all the pillows we have was on the floor and all the toys from her room were laying in the living room! Few dishes and glasses, cause they were playing picnic theme at the moment I walked in. Paper scraps everywhere. Felt pens without tops… I don’t even want to count… One big mess!
Jānis: ” I let them, they told, they will clean up!”
Today is Tuesday and it is still messy! Still not cleaned up! We run out of ideas how to deal with them! How to make kids clean all after playing!
Please! This time I’m asking for help! How to make kids clean after the play!? I feel miserable…. I’m dealing with this all the time, every day… Is it possible to teach kids to clean after play!? Or to put away clothes?
Thank you,
Ilze
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A big problem, perhaps a problems of the times. I’ll be interested to see if any of your other readers comes up with a solution as I didn’t have that problem but it’s a long time ago.
PS. But I haven’t escaped the plumbing problems! No flood, yet, but a lot of wasted water (costly too)!
Can you turn it down!?
I managed to stop it temporarily but I need to do something permanent as it will start again for sure. I’m deciding whether to change the whole tap unit to somthing which doesn’t have ridiculous complicated ‘ceramic’ inserts.
When my son was little, I made up a game and always gave him a treat when it was clean.
The game is see who gets the most done to get a special reward. Something small like an extra treat but since you have 3, make sure they all get treats for doing it.
Does he cleaning his room now without “treats”?
Yes but only if I get mad and make him do it. Lol
😀 Sounds like me!!!
That doesn’t surprise me. Although you are more patient than I am. I couldn’t do 3 kids!
I have to do 3! Cause I have 3! And after first two I told – yes – I want another one… 🙂 And now all those “behaving” problems… not serious! They are lovely girls! Really are, but I wish they were a bit “independent”… not like doing all by themselves but.. only picking up toys and make room look “clean”. Not actually wash and clean but… JUST TOYS! And we DON’T have MUCH toys!
They will get more independent as they get older. And I know what you mean. Kids 🙄
🙂 GooD! Can’t wait! I must open a bottle and start waiting (just kidding)… I can’t wake up today! It’s 1:44PM and still feeling like just from bed 😀
Oh I wish I could do that! It’s 5:45am here
Get them in a routine and make it fun! It’s so easy to make anything fun with kids.
It is NOT SO EASY to make anything fun! Can you give examples!?
I’m sorry if that sounded insensitive Ilze. I’m the oldest of five and it was my job to coordinate house cleaning. I made it a fun game to get my brothers and sisters to help. I guess it just comes easy to me. I would have to come up with different ideas to keep them interested…a race to see how fast they could pick up theirs toys was a favorite, BUT they had to be neat about it too. Incentives for fun adventures after the jobs were done always worked. Your house will never stay clean all the time because you live there. Take a break when you need one to stay sane. ❤️
When I see how Nelle talks to Linna or Helmī if she want them to do something… i have no doubt that it’s easy when you are kid! But to be grownup and tired… tired to be police, to be general, to be nurse etc.. then there is no “room” for fun 🙁 I don’t intend for clean house. I want to teach girls what they will need when they grow up! Simple things – put away toys! Fold clothes etc.
I thought the same thing when my boys were growing up. They were absolute slobs! Now that they are grown, they are super neat. I guess all those years of fussing worked!
🙂 thank you for sharing!
A wise teacher once told me that children need love and consequences. She said I was giving my students love, but no consequences. Make a consequence sign. Place it where they can see it. Refer to it when there is an issue. Stick to it always EXAMPLE: If you don’t clean up your toys when you play in the living room, then the toys go in a bag for one week.
I like this idea, but I think we will end up not having toys! Cause our younger one is the one who likes to trow toys around, even if they are “just put in place” by other sisters. Don’t know what to do about that! She is 2 years old… and “don’t care”.
Haaaa twos. I remember those years. My children are now 27 and 25.
Mine are 5, almost 4 and 2! 🙂 I wished myself good luck for tomorrow and gone to bed! Goodnight!
Did you show them my “Spoiled Bunnies” post?
Try to make clean up time fun by playing cleaning “games” You can also make “chore charts” which is a list of a few things they are supposed to clean up around the house every day. If they do all of the chores on the list, offer a prize or something special at the end of the week. I don’t think that always giving treats everytime they help with cleaning is a good idea because then you will eventually have the problem of, they don’t want to help clean up THEIR mess unless they get a “prize.” (Which is not good!) Also, my family always had a rule, not allowed to play with new toys or go play in a different room, until the old toys were put away and the room you were playing in was spotless clean and everything was cleaned up. Hope some of this can be a help to you! ☺
It really sounds how I want it! We had “daily routine” with pompoms and after there are jar full – they can have anything they want. Didn’t work. Now they are helping unload dishwasher. But that is it… nothing else. And the main “problem causer” are Helmī, who is 2 years old and “don’t care”. Special type of kids, that don’t care about toys, you can put her in room without anything, she will take her socks of and play 🙂 And they 3 are living in one room, so if 2 bigger girls “put toys in place” the little one takes them out.. or so they say! “Please, put away this!” “I didn’t take it, Helmī did! Why I need to clean after her!? I need help! I’m too tired!”
Oh yes, that’s understandable. 2 year olds don’t really understand “clean up” yet ☺ It will get easier as they get older though!
I know… I just want “free time” or “my time” without cleaning… but if there is no place on sofa to drink the tea… also not in armchair… I got upset and tired! 🙂 Thank you for your time and comments! Helps me a lot!
It is certainly tough with three little ones. I, unfortunately have no solutions. You just do your best everyday. Sometimes you just have to work around the mess!
Sometimes I fail and sometimes I don’t.. but most of the time, I don’t care! And at the end it will be clean when girls grow up! 🙂 I hope!
Mmm… don’t count on it!
Noooooo!!!!!! 🙂
Lol you probably don’t believe in it but my parents would spank me if I didn’t clean up after myself. Trust me. My mom would only have to tell me once and I would clean everything up. I was cleaning the toilets and doing my own laundry by the time I was in kindergarten.
I had childhood similar to you, but don’t think it’s good way to raise kids!