that my kids started telling knock knock jokes that go something like…
“knock knock”
“who’s there?”
“ma”
“ma who?”
“ma dawgs"
I’m kidding, of course! Sort of.
My kids are notorious non-tidy-up’ers! They absolutely hate to clean, and it seems that no amount of motivational songs, threats, or rewards can help the situation. It actually amazes me to hear the elaborate excuses that 3 and 4 year olds can think up!
I used to go on for about half an hour trying very hard to convince them that cleaning was ‘fun’, ‘smart’, ‘healthy’, you know, I used just about any adjective I thought would serve as encouragement, and yet nothing. Then, I started with the threats, “I WILL give it away!”, “I WILL throw it in the garbage!”, “I WILL give it to the baby!”, but they would then dare me to do it! Mind you, many of their toys are now sitting in the basement and even more have been given to charity. But I found it hard to just take away the toys that I know they love, and they’d caught on to my weakness.
Recently, I discovered a technique that works so well, I don’t even have to threaten anymore! One day, as they sat ignoring my pleas to remove their toys from the floor before I swept, without warning, I just started sweeping away their toys. I have never seen them work so fast before – they jumped from their seats and ran to remove their toys from my path! Now, when I tell them I am going to sweep away their toys, they instantly start putting everything back into the toy box.
Last night though, they were extremely tired from missing their daytime nap, and when I started to sweep the toys, they both completely lost it and started screaming and crying very loudly, so loudly that I was fearful a neighbor might have called child services! But, the trick is to remain completely calm and unconcerned with their crying. I just calmly gave them the options, and calmly told them that I was going to sweep whether they cried or not (more crying ensued, of course), then the baby got very worried about his toys and started to pick them up. As I neared the end of the living room, I started counting, and told them that they had until I counted to 20 and then the toys would be gone, thankfully this worked and the place was clean by the time I reached 39 (they requested 19 additional counts).
How do you get your kids to clean?
As my husband and I were about to go to sleep last night at about 11:30, all 3 kids decided that they would wake up and surprise us with a lovely little melody…
The toddler has the most high-pitched voice, but since he’s not too loud and mostly reaches out to his daddy, I can usually block out his tune…
The newborn is not as enthusiastic as the other 2 children about the performance yet, its more of a little squeak from him, which kind of takes him out of the running…
Now the preschooler…he takes the prize! He’s loud, he can keep on going for a long time without breaks, his pitch goes high and low, and he likes to repeat the same notes over and over!!
If anyone wants to rent some kids for the weekend, please let me know…they give GREAT performances!!
At least they are all asleep right now (including daddy)…
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