Similar to my standard thoughts related to children and parenting, I am not sure if there really is an age that is appropriate or not. Every child responds differently. I can say that from experience as I have two girls, 16 months apart that are very similar, yet, VERY different. With my eldest daughter who just turned 6, at 14 months, she was helping me clean up after playing with each toy. She always liked things tidy. That made for an easy transition when it was time for her to start cleaning up after herself without my help. By 21/2 years of age, I rarely had to ask her to clean up her playroom. My second daughter, now 4, was a different story. She was not interested in anything being tidy. In fact, the more of a mess she made, the happier she seemed. Like my first, I began by helping her clean up as soon as she was able to walk (just about a year old). She, on the other hand, still gets upset when I tell her to clean up after herself. Her typical reaction is filled with drama... "oh... but... but... I am just soooo tired!" End result, my eldest does most of the cleaning up while my baby walks around the room pretending to work hard. Once in a while, she puts in a lot of effort. When she does, she feels pleased with herself. Due to this, I have to constantly remind her how good she will feel once things are clean and how happy she and her sister will be with a clean room... When that doesn't work, I use another approach... "Do you know what will happen if you don't clean your room? Bugs will start crawling around... Some that bite, others that are black and furry... Next thing you know, they will be in your hair and your clothes! You really don't want that do you?" That usually helps a lot. :)
