Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Putting kids to work

I'm putting my kids to work. I'm not forcing them to get a paper route (do they even have those nowadays) but I am insisting that they do more to keep the house clean and help out with chores.
We instituted this new policy after a busy week in which the house went from untidy (OK), to messy (bad), to embarassing disaster.
I'm no neat freak. Ask anyone. But when it gets to the disaster point, it makes me want to cry every time I come home. It's bad karma. It makes me want to burn it down and start all over again. Surely that would be easier.
So we had a family meeting and told the boys that we wanted more help. We want them to help clean the family area and keep their own room presentable. We told them that we all need to neaten up every day so we don't have to have massive clean-ups every week or so.
Then we spent the day cleaning. I cleaned the kitchen and the dining room and moved on to my bathroom and bedroom. My husband cleaned the living room and then moved on to his computer in the office. (Sigh).
I felt elated when my kids took out the trash and the recycling. It was a dream come true. I felt my spirits lifting. Then my mood plunged as I spent the day pleading with them and encouraging them and berating them in order to get them to clean their room.
It's probably not a good sign that one of my big threats is that I would come clean with them. "Noooooo," they wail. Anything but that. Still I found myself in their room trying to get them to put away their clothes. My oldest son proceeded to take the neatly folded teeshirts, cram them into a ball and then shove them into the drawer like you would try to cram the garbage into the garbagepail. Sigh. We're going to have to keep working on that one.
Now on day 3, I have tried to keep tidying and my children's room has gone back to chaos. So it's back to the drawing board today. Either that or I'm going to burn it down.