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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have three kids, age 8, 5, and 2.  I feel like before our third was born I was pretty good about teaching my kids to clean up their toys, straighten their room before bedtime and before school in the morning, help out with chores, etc.  Our house was fairly organized and clean and I thought the kids were contributing in an age-appropriate way.

Now that our third is a two year old all hell has broken loose.  There are toys everywhere.  Our two year old's favorite activity, in fact, seems to be dumping toys around the house (and no, he doesn't have access to everything; but what he does have access to is more than enough to make a ridiculous mess).

[b]It's hard to manage a 2 year old boy[/b], and now we're really slacking on reminding our older kids to clean up after themselves (and insisting they follow through).  When we try we often hear something along the lines of, "I didn't make that mess!" and when we make EVERYONE clean up together, the older kids get frustrated that the youngest isn't helping, then the 5 year old gives up on helping (and when we try to insist she melts down), and then the 8 year old keeps cleaning but is reasonably angry with us for cleaning up her siblings' mess - and I don't like making her be a mini parent any more than necessary.

Advice?  Sympathy?  Help?[/quote]

You are making excuses and your older girls are calling you out on it in their own ways.

YOU need to clean up after the 2 yo if you aren't going to stop him from making a mess everywhere. Have your girls go back to what they were doing - being responsible for themselves. You need to teach your 2 yo to play in the playroom (wherever that is).

When they get older, you can do the "everyone clean up after everyone else". Right now, your two oldest need to see you have the 2 yo clean up his own mess. Even if that is you leading him to a toy, helping him pick it up, and walking him hand in hand to the toy box to drop it in.
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