Tuesday, August 5, 2014
crayons on the table
sitting here at 10:40 at night i look around the house and the presence of a washcloth, broom, vacuum of mop is almost non existent. i literally spent 60% of my day today cleaning and doing laundry and just picking up the house. why.... what for... not even 12 hours later you can't even tell. toys on the floor, overflowing trash can, dishes in the sink and crayons on the table. i have no idea why but i was so upset by the appearance of my house i was almost in tears. everyone that knows me knows that i don't keep a clean house... its always messy.... not dirty but messy. so when i spend all day to make it better just to see it back to how it was in a matter of hours it just really got to me tonight. the crayons pushed me over the edge and i felt frustration take over. its so stupid and would take 1 minute to pick up, but why dose it have to be MY minute to pick up. the boys are old enough now i need to start introducing chores and the idea of picking up after ones self. any tips on this adventure would be wonderful, i clean their room after hours of me telling them to with no avail, i put their dishes in the sink i put their clothes in the laundry... these are simple things that a 3 and 5 year old could do.... right? ugh mommy life sometimes gets to me, then they give me good night kisses and hugs and 2 high fives (high fives are must in this house per the boys lol) and it all just seams to melt away... if only i would have seen the crayons before i got all the good night love instead of after... well its decided I'm don blogging and I'm going to go get extra kisses and high fives to five this mommy funk. nighty night all
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Don't do it FOR them, do it WITH them. Dishes are easy, when you all finish dinner and you get ready for kitchen clean up,tell them "boys bring Mommy your plates". No reason why 5 year old (not sure if you use names, I am not going to!!) can not scrape his plate if it needs to be as well.
ReplyDeleteDirty clothes, if you have a dirty clothes hamper or basket in a certain place, show them that when they get undressed, this is where your clothes go.
As far as cleaning up their room, again 5 year old is more than old enough to pick up his toys and 3 year old can definitely help, but he will easily get distracted and most likely start playing. If you have a toy box, then they just need to put all their toys there, if you have various spots for various items to go, print pictures and tape on the outside of each tote, so they can visually see where what goes. Start off helping them pick up for a couple weeks and then slowly let them do more and more of the work.(Stay in there with them, and start off with helping them, but them ease up and let them do more of the picking up), they are still little so I wouldn't expect them to clean up all their toys, without getting distracted. I'd also have clean up at various times through the day, to help stay on top of everything. Before lunch do a quickly 15 minute clean up, set a timer and have the boys pick up toys for 5 minutes (make it a fun race), while they do that, empty your dishwasher/drainer, sweep the floor quickly, run the vacuum, etc what ever needs to be done and can be done in that 15 minutes. Once time is up, sit down together and have lunch, then nap time/quiet time. Just let them look at books, puzzles, maybe lego's/blocks, a movie. After nap time, a quick 5 or 10 minute clean up again. Outside time/ play that gets their body going. Before you serve dinner do another timed clean up. Play music while they pick things up, again only make it no more than 15 minutes.
After dinner, play time, bath time, story time, then bed time...right before bedtime, take 10 minutes to do a quick clean up again.
Remember it takes 30 to 45 days to make something a routine, so be patient with yourself and the kids.
These are just my suggestions, you will find what works best for you. If you do the quick timer clean up, make sure it's just 5 to 15 minutes, you're not going for perfection with each clean up, you're going for a quick pick up so that once they're in bed, you don't have very much to do...maybe just a sweep and mop of the kitchen and bathroom, etc. You can do a once a week deep cleaning, so that you know once a week the house will be good and clean (even though it will not stay that way) and since you'll be able to stay on top of things and the boys will be helping, it won't feel so overwhelming.
So many hugs to you sweet friend!!