Today the kids started trashing their room while they were supposed to be cleaning it. I don't understand the logic.... it went like this
Malaki: mom can I watch a tv
Me: sure, but first you and Lillie need to put your blankets on your bed and put away your toys
(at this point there were 2 ponies and a couple cars on the floor)
Both kids start whining and complaining.
Me: (upbeat) it's ok it won't take that long, just toss your blanket on your bed and put your toys on the shelf and then we can watch a cartoon and play a game.
The kids go in there room and close the door, crying about not wanting to clean it. Kori crawls over and bangs on the door a little so Lillie lets her in.
this was all about noonish, right after lunch.
It is now 2:30, they pulled out all there toys, tossed blankets around the room... I drew the line when they started getting into the clothes. Now we are having a battle of wills, one that I will win. We are progressive spanking. They don't listen they get one spanking. wait a couple minutes, they still don't clean they get 2... wait, then 3... and so on. They have been told that if we get to five all the toys will be gone. I will pick up everything on the floor and "throw it away". This was met with wails and "NO NOT MY TOYS!!!"
to which I calmly responded, ok then lets get them cleaned up and then you can get them out and play with them later if you want to.
We just did spanking number 3, and they are finally starting to clean, after a reminder that they will soon be loosing the toys.
I keep having to go get Korinthia tho because she is making it hard for them to clean, pulling toys out as they put them away.
I just wish they could see how easy it would be to just pick up the 3 things each at the beginning of this whole thing... we could have had such a better day!
Why does the room cleaning always have to be such a pain?? My most recent tactic was breaking it into small jobs: giving them a few minutes to pick up JUST the books, not worrying about the rest of the mess. If they succeeded, positive consequence; if they failed, negative. Then three more minutes to do JUST the legos. Then three more minutes to do JUST the ponies. That seemed to work ok.
ReplyDeleteOf course, this was after a LONG period of failure to clean which resulted in me taking five or six garbage bags full of stuff to Goodwill. And they still have plenty of toys! I am seriously going to try to cut down on the number of toys that accumulate. They are just as happy with the number of things they have now; I don't think they miss anything that I got rid of!
I don't see what the big deal is... Oliver doesn't even leave his toys out in the first place!
ReplyDeleteI'm with Carrie, I don't know what your guys' problems are. I never have to tell Kaden to pick up his toys! :)
ReplyDeleteCarrie... I'm sure they are just going to sit back and laugh when it is our turn. :)