Kids=Mess March 25, 2008
Since the day we moved into this house nearly 6 years ago, we have been using the dining room as a toy room. Which meant that the toys were strewn all over the main floor of our house. All…day…long. Sure, I could have cleaned up the toys several times a day. Or I could have stood over my kids and made them clean up 5 times a day. (Talk about a pain in the booty!) Usually the toys would just stay on the floor most of the day and we’d all just have to step over them. Then we’d all work together to clean up before bed. If we ever had a surprise knock at the door, there was no way to hide the piles of toys here, there and everywhere. I just didn’t have the energy to pick them up all day or fight with my kids to pick them up all day.
Finally, a few weeks ago I had it. I couldn’t take the toys all over my house one more minute. So during nap time I moved every single toy upstairs to my boys’ room. Nothing like moving every toy you own upstairs to make you realize how much junk you have. Yikes. I thought this would solve my messy house problem. The kids would go upstairs to play and that would be that. Sorry Charlie. That isn’t how it worked. For the most part, the kids actually do keep their toys upstairs. Occasionally a stray toy will be found back down in the living room. That’s not where our current mess problem lies. As my title says “Kids=mess.” Even if there are no toys around, kids will find a way to to make a mess of a room. Here are some items that are currently around on my living room and dining room floors: half Easter egg shells, library books, puzzle pieces, easter baskets, pajamas, 2 dolls, CDs, flash light, light saber, rubik’s cube,blanket and tissues. I will admit, several of these items are actually toys that should be upstairs. But even when all the toys are upstairs, then the kids bring out our games, puzzles and books and leave those all over these two room. I guess I could move those items up stairs too. But large puzzles and board games are usually easier to do on a table. That’s why I kept them down here. I also like to keep the library books down stairs so that they don’t get mixed in with all the books we own. I’ve lost many a library book and paying for those things stink!
So anyway. Leave it to kids to make a total mess of any room with anything that is available. I can just hear all you people out there with no kids or just one kid saying, “Well why don’t you just make your kids pick up after themselves before they get out more toys?? That’s what I would do!” Ahh, you silly, silly people. It all sounds so good in theory. I agree. That is the best way to work things. But sometimes, things don’t work out that way in the real world.
Imagine you’ve just told your four children to pick up the toys they have out. The older ones start in with, “Ah, but I’m too tired. I don’t know how to do it. Blah Blah Blah.” Your toddler flat out says, “NOOOOO!!!! I don’t want to!!!!” While he throws himself on the floor. And then your infant just sits there and babbles and can’t be any help to anyone. So la de da…..whatcha gonna do now big shot tiger?? Put them all in time out? Well yes, I’ve tried that too. You think they’re going to go willingly? HA!! Silly fools! You have to drag them. Then they won’t stay in time out. They keep coming out and taunting you. So you have to lock them in their rooms. Then while they’re locked in their rooms in time out, they have tantrums and trash those rooms too. Oh wait, who’s watching the baby and toddler when this is going on??!! Yikes!! Dash back to play room to find toddler still throwing tantrum. So you drag another defiant kid to time out. But you’re a tough parent. You’re firm and you stand behind what you say! You won’t back down!! The tantrums settle. The dust clears. And what do you have now? Several very messy rooms. Do you tell the kids to help clean them up? Maybe. I mean they’ve got to learn to pitch in, right? Or you could clean it up yourself. Just this once. Right. Totally. And so you see…kids=mess.
I’m still working on getting my kids to happily help clean the house. Or at least grumpily help clean the house. What ever works.
I’ve found that making them clean as precursors to doing something that they want can work.
Especially if it’s just a few things. If they have to clean up the whole mess before say, having a snack, then they won’t / don’t want to.
But if we’re say playing DDR and before every song everyone has to clean up 1 or 2 things, that has worked.
This post made me laugh so hard! And as a parent of just one kid, even I can relate. One Kid = Mess! Jenna’s not at the age yet where she gets the whole “pick up after yourself” thing, and I don’t have the energy right now to be constantly picking up stuff. It’s usually Braden who’ll sometimes pick up toys at night.
Since there’s a barrier of boxes and bins so Jenna can’t get into the dining room, a lot of times, she’ll stand behind a box and send toy after toy to its death. So we usually find a bunch of toys on the other side of one particular box.
Isn’t it funny how things should work in theory, but then they totally don’t in real life? Amen, sista.
this is motherhood. and fatherhood. I don’t know many people with kids whose house would be spotless if you “dropped” in. I do know a few. But they are totally anal. Either they screech a lot or clean it themselves. And give themselves migraines.