**ANGRY & ADVICE** How do YOU get them to do something?

[diva det]

i spend my whole weekend hassling, bribing, pleading, begging and eventually yelling at them to clean their mess up!
i hear you totally!!!
this weekend they have been 'working' on cleaning their rooms and they are still not done

the only way i have found to cut mess down is to have awesome storage for their toys or only let them use a certain amount of toys at a time
use to work well when they were younger say up till 5 years old but now - blah no hope!
My DD is unbelieveable- she keeps every piece of paper she cuts/uses , she keeps tags off clothes and her mess is sprawled everywhere- mind you she has our old bedroom which is full of cupboards and storage and she has stuff everywhere- the other day i found her nighty in a new take-away container!!!!!
i think they just get so overwhelmed with their mess that they dont know where to start or how to clean it up again
the mess just appears!!
sometimes it is heaps quicker for me to get in there with them and 'help ' them get stuff sorted- a PITA for me but stops the yelling

hugs hun wish i had a magic answer for you but i dont!!!

[~Raven~]

Put a washing basket in the middle of the floor and make it a game. Books first, then trains, then socks etc. You might have to do a bit of the work to start with but they generally join in.

[Netix]

Cool, thanks for the suggestions everyone. And I am sorry, I just REALLY needed to vent!

I managed to do some of my cleaning up in the garage, now, I am going to help them. See how we go...

[toomanyshoes]

vent away

hope it goes better this time and less stressful!

[Netix]

Now they are happy and having, um, lunch.... Just some honey on bread and a drink to tide them over until dinner. I made it a race to see who could put the most away. Rhino, as usual, just wanted to play with his trucks, and Steph complained that he wasn't doing anything, but seemed happy that she had put more away than he. I put all the toys away that just don't seem to have a box to go in. They live in the mixed toy box. A nightmare in itself. Now, I am having a well deserved coffee and a few minutes on BB.

[Bern]

toys that dont get put away get put away for good.....

[emc2]

Well I seem to have had the experience of having adult acquaintances with that problem, can't clean up after themselves.

I am imagining with this little one who's coming, I don't think I'll own a lot of toys, there's not the room for them in the unit here. In fact it will be a bit different as it's unlikely I'm moving in with his father, he will spend an awful lot of time with me doing housework as playtime lol. I will have to make a game out of it.

But yes you can tell the difference between people who've been taught to do housework, and those who've had it done for them. With a 2yo and 4yo I am guessing the go is to store some items away, and meet them halfway on cleaning up. And definitely not pulling out all the toys in one go, so that then goes back to how they're stored.