do you clean your older childrens rooms?

Jessica - posted on 06/12/2011

Ummm... I am not sure what you mean by older children. My little Rowan (oldest) is 16 months old... and he already picks up his toys with mommas help... does that mean it is clean 5 minutes later? No. HELL no. BUT... it teaches him so that later on when I say "pick up you toys" he knows what I mean. He also tries to help me make his bed...

Christy - posted on 05/18/2011

I don't like to clean the kids bedrooms, so I don't help with the big kids. I do tell them occasionally that they won't get their allowance until it is clean. That typically works. Other incentives such as parties or friends have worked as well.

Christy
mother of 4!

Jessi - posted on 03/29/2011

wow.. i think im a meany. lol.. my kids are 3 1/2 and 2 and they clean up their own room. about once a week i ask them to pick up all their toys and put them in the bin so i can vacuum. hopefully this way they will learn good habits. ...could be wishful thinking! lol





oops. edited to add, i just realized this said OLDER childrens rooms. sry for the irrelevancy.

Kalyn - posted on 01/10/2011

I have children of 8 boy, 14 girl and 16 boy.
I do clean there rooms. I do not do it daily, maybe once a month. I do injoy cleaning there room sometimes I dicover interesting things. I do not read there journals and so forth. I go in and out everything in there place. I take out the trash, make beds, put clothes away and vacume the floors. This way I know it gets done and when I have a funny feelling about something, I do discover the truth of a easy room cheek.

Shawn - posted on 09/25/2010

I have a 9, 5, and 4 year old. Since I have an autistic child and we are working on independence, I will assist but not do. My other 2 children are required to make their beds, pick up their dirty cloths and keep their room tidy. My autistic child is required to do the same. We are on dot system in our house. An allowance but visual. You earn so many dots and you get to buy things from the treat bag. My 9 year old can turn the dots into cash. I vaccum and dust there rooms. Because I have to work so much with my autistic child in his routines, it becomes habit for me to check on the other 2 at the same time. I usually set aside 15 minutes in a day to go back and forth between bedrooms. At first it was so difficult. I felt I was doing nothing but nagging. Now we have turned it into a race and that has motivated the 5 and 4 year old. My 9 year old does not like to be outdone by the little one so gets her but in gear. I will say that this works when I am on top of things. If left to themselves, it falls apart. My hope is that like other routines eventually I will be able to sit back and it will just happen naturally. A mom can hope.

Sarah - posted on 09/10/2010

@Racheal Maybe when the friend is about ready to leave, maybe 10 minutes? Give warning. You know like you do when it's time to get ready for bed, or to go somewhere? "Hey Johnny, you need to leave in 10 minutes, let's help put the room back to way it was when you got here". It may not fix all of the mess, but I'm betting it will lessen the load. :)

My oldest is 6 and my youngest is 9 months. They all share a room. The living room and kitchen are picked up on a nightly basis, but I can't seem to get a handle on the bedrooms. Any advice?

Racheal - posted on 08/10/2010

my son is 5 and his room is a COMPLETE DISASTER!!! i refuse to clean it because i do it quiet often and when his friend comes over he freaking flips that room upside down! i tell the child he has to clean up the mess that they made or he cant come over anymore, but honestly when that kid is ready to leave so am i and i just want him gone!! idk what to do?!?!? i dont really think he is old enough to completly get it but it shouldnt be this damn hard....doesn't help that our whole house looks like that to :( lol what can i say sometimes im just lazy..

Leanne - posted on 02/28/2010

I go in to say goodnight and my OCD kicks in. I chat about their day but I am also tiding clothes, picking up garbage and putting things away. I have often been told to just sit down and say goodnight, and I honestly try, but I let them know that if they'd like me to do that, then it has to look different when I walk in. With my youngest who is 7, his room is really just toys, whereas my girls who are 10, it's everything and more, my 12 yr old daughter is the most organized person I have ever met ( she didn't get that from me) and my 15 yr old, well, I am pretty sure he now has roommates of some kind, and he's actually invited them by the way he leaves his room. I am really not one to speak because my room always ends up messy too, but I use the excuse that I am cleaning up after everyone else and I am to tired to do my own. TOp that off with my husbands side is ALWAYS messy. Makes me crazy but I live with it.

Tiffany - posted on 11/09/2009

I have my 12 year old clean his own room but I find his definition of clean and mine are very different. I find it helps to break it down into steps. Ex: first pick up all the dirty clothes, next the books, then pick up any garbage and so on. It seems over whelming for him if I just say clean your room. Privileges are with held until the job is done.

Tera - posted on 08/07/2009

My oldest Zoey is 10 and she shares her room with her sister Nancy who is 5.I also have a 6 year old boy. I do not clean their rooms. They have a play room where they keep all their toys so most of the mess is in there, and I don't clean that either. (When it comes to running the vaccume cleaner, I do that but clutter is their job!) They make the mess they are old enough to know that when they're finished with something they should put it away, if it gets bad enough, they'll spend the entire day or night cleaning the room!

Magaly - posted on 08/05/2009

my oldest is 14, and i do NOT clean her room. like u, i believe she's perfectly capable and i've armed her with everything she needs to stay clean and (try to be) organized. before, we used to have a BIG problem with wrappers of all kinds...in corners, under the bed. we solved that REAL quick when she lost the priveledge to eat in her room.

i've lost the battle of her making the bed in the mornings, i dont insist because she wakes at 515am to get ready for school, but there's no excuse on other days. she's gotten in the rhythm of at least taking 15 min out every day after school to declutter, get clothes in the hamper, etc. its so much easier to do a few min a day instead of an all out 5hr deep clean. (u might have to start there though so they can be motivated to keep it that way!)

Marielba - posted on 08/04/2009

My daughter is 13, and I do not clean her room. When I go in there and it's a mess, all I have to say is "I can't even be in here, its disgusting. I don't even want to look." I walk away and usually she gets the point. There are times when I start ranting and raving, but I have found the quiet reaction gets her to react quicker.