Posted by Colleen February 9, 2010
Clean is the Thing
Moms I need your help.
How do you get your kids to clean their room?
I’ve tried about everything with David, my five year old, over the last two years. It always ends the same way. First he puts up a fight. Then he goes in his room and messes around, and doesn’t get any cleaning done. He ends up being punished.
I’m tired of the fight. I just want him to pick up his toys, and put them in his toy box. This shouldn’t be this hard.
So what works for you?
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Twitter: thecookiemomma
says:
We do it the other way, actually. If toys are not picked up (in the main rooms, especially), then they get put up by parents, and are kept for a period of time. It helps them really think about whether they want their toys to go away.
Along the lines of what Deborah said, you could try out the house fairy. http://www.housefairy.org . Basically the “house fairy” inspects his room once a week. If she likes what she sees, he gets a small reward of some kind. There are ideas on the site.
Love and Logic principle: “You’re welcome to [watch tv, help me make grill cheese sandwiches, play w Legos] as soon as you get your room cleaned up [and be specific]: all the books to the shelf, all the toys in the toybox, all the dirty clothes to the basket.” L & L rocks, I highly recommend anything by them; they’re on Fb… this system, of giving kids a choice, either one of which results in your desired outcome, worked REALLY well with my boys. – Hil
I can’t remember what I did back when my son was that young. Now, he’s old enough to know that he’s going to get something taken away if he doesn’t keep it clean. So, usually he does it on his own.
forgot to mention I’m following from #FF! Hope you have a chance to stop by my blog and say hi
my son was difficult to keep on task when cleaning his room as well and it always ended in tears and punishment. I realized he would do one task and then forget the others, so I would make a list and he then checked off each item and couldn’t do what he wanted until list was complete. Start early in the morning, when you get out of bed you have to make it or no breakfast etc. sound harsh? it’s not and it worked for me After breakfast No TV-etc until room is clean, they work fast when they realize there is no alternative-and if they cry all day of well they can’t come out until it’s done. My son has plenty of daily chores and has for years and now we can both say when we do dishes together we have FUN. My daughter too
Good Luck !
my cousin would take her sons’ toys and hide them away for awhile if they wouldn’t pick their things up. it helped! she kept doing it right into teen years with things like video games and paint guns! ha!
Have you tried this?
Take away most of the toys. Choose an amount you feel comfy with. Five maybe? Put the rest in a laundry basket and explain to him why this is happening.
Explain that each time he cleans as you ask…he gets to pick a toy from the basket to add back to his room.
If he fails to comply ( that word sounds so…cold doesnt it? ) then he has to pick a toy, from his room, that goes “away”
Make sure that when he loses a beloved toy, that HE puts it in the laundry basket and watches you put it away.
Give him an opportunity, fairly soon, to earn it back by asking him to pick up again.
It will not take him long to learn to clean up quickly!
Hope this helps!
Mindy~
Twitter: acupofjoy
says:
Hey, SIL!
I’m not a mom . . . yet. But, I have been a teacher and a reward system usually works great with kids. Have you tried using a cleaning chart? Perhaps at the end of the week, if he fills in his chart, he can have a small reward. Something special, but not over the top because it would be weekly.
Hope you find something that works!
Love you!