Reply to Perfectionist mom can’t deal with mess

Forum Index » General Parenting Discussion

Reply to "Perfectionist mom can’t deal with mess"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]For the number of things that you are trying to accomplish it makes sense that it takes 3 hours. However you really need to look at that full list and pick a few that you are willing to cut corners. Don't want to get takeout and like to cook? Meal plan in a way that 2-3 days of the week you are reheating leftovers and dishes shouldn't take an hour. Do you need to vacuum the whole house everyday or are you comfortable just vacuuming high traffic/crumb areas like the kitchen on a daily basis and leaving the rest to a few times of week? If you set a schedule you may feel more of a sense of control knowing that at some point things will be cleaned.

In terms of your kids it doesn't have to be all or nothing. I have a 4.5 year old and an 1.5 year old and they definitely help clean up. A few things that could help:

1. You have way too many toys out. We live in an apartment with no playroom (just a play area in the main living space) and that forces me to limit big toys. Like other posters have mentioned you don't need to have legos, a train table and a bounce house all available in different rooms. Pick one big thing and keep everything in the playroom.

2. If they are just playing in the playroom I wouldn't enforce one toy at a time. Its good for kids to play uninterrupted. My daughter likes to put her counting bears in her magnatile castles and use her ice cream truck to catch the cars that come off her race track. I would just have set times for clean-up like before lunch, after snack, etc.

3. For messy activities like playdoh or arts and crafts I would decide when I was comfortable with them playing with them and limit it to those times. If they do have outdoor time things like playdoh can easily be brought out to play with on the tarp. The kids can also have picnics outside to help limit crumbs during mealtimes. If you do a messy activity indoors I would enforce clean up before moving onto something new. I put my 1.5 year old in a highchair and give him paper and crayons. When he's done I clean-up and then take him out so he has to wait before moving onto the next thing.

4. This is the best age to teach cleaning up! Kids love to help and feel like a big person. At 3.5 I made my daughter earn money for a new toy by giving her tasks like putting away her laundry, wiping down the bathroom sinks, arranging the shoes in the coat closet, etc. Now at 4.5 she can put away her toys and arrange everything in her play area and room better than any cleaning person or nanny. I have to direct my 1.5 year old but he loves helping his big sister by handing her things for her to put away.

[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics