Conquering The Pits Of Woe!

[Domestic Goddess]

I don't want to turn into a nag, but I am getting really fed up with the state of our daughters bedrooms. They're idea of tidying does not match mine. They can never find anything and I imagine it can't be a very restful place to sleep in. The girls are 11 and nearly 8, should I be expecting them to keep their rooms presentable?

How have other parents here encouraged their offspring to keep things ship shape?

PS I keep treading on bits of PlayMobil which is rather painful!

[mazza]

I am afraid I gave up with the nice-y nice-y approach a while ago now...so it's no 'carrots' for my boys anymore...just the 'stick' !!!.

I have to threaten/bribe them that they won't be able to go out and play/go swimming/go shopping/have a cake etc etc until it is tidied up.

I also tell them ''what if there's a fire at night...how will you escape through all this junk???'' etc

They do do it when I get onto them...but otherwise they just leave it and are more than happy to stagger over heaps of clothes, wooden trains, books, boxes, lego.............. Grrrr! :frown:

[Bonkers Mad!!!]

more than once i have binned the whole lot :yes: they were warned a week in advance that if there was anything on the floor then it would be up to me to decide whether it was rubbish. i decided that it all was and chucked everything except the books, which went to the charity shop. i then told people that if they were stupid enough to buy my kids toys then it was up to them. it was one of the things that made giving up Xmas, easy.

[phantos02]

Originally posted by mazza@6th September 2005 - 9:20 AM

I also tell them ''what if there's a fire at night...how will you escape through all this junk???'' etc


132226


Yeah my parents used to use that one on me. I think it worked actually.

Mind you my room was never that messy, it wasn't worth the risk of my Mum exploding :blink:

[Annabel]

:banghead: Gosh, this is such an issue...my 9 year old is a total lazy mare, I swear she thinks she is a princess and i am just here to fetch and carry after her.

i go ballistic when , after spending hours ironing all her (very nice) clothes, i find she has ripped them off their hangers and they are screwed up at the bottom of her wardrobe...she also puts clean clothes in the washing basket...it drives me nuts :rant: :rant:

Little Miss Annabel is lucky enough to have quite a large cupboard in her bedroom where she can put her toys etc...as you can imagine it is a total tip, if you open the door , all the stuff falls out on top of you...every so often i lose my patience and go in there to muck it out, and insist on all the bits of paper and junk has to be thrown out, she gets very stroppy and uptight about me touching her things, however, if i say to her 'decide what you want to give to charity' she might only come up with one tiny item...and she takes all day to even tidy up a small corner , i cant bear it and have to just walk away...then when she is off the scene somewhere i just get in there and sort it all out myself...and she never misses anything I chuck out...grrr..... :rant: :rant:

the worst thing is her complete lack of regard for her carpets, she drops glue, glitter, paint, felt tip all over it, no matter how many times i say 'put newspaper down' , pah i may as well talk to a brick wall :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

as for her curtains, she has a habit of pulling back the net curtain which has resulted in her breaking the net rod :o :o :rant: :rant: ooohh arrrggghhh

and i have to be really harsh on her, otherwise she would accumulate all manner of tat and hoard it in her room, like 'interestingly shaped stones found in the garden' an 'empty snail shells' , oddly shaped twigs, bits of paper, broken plastic articles of indeterminate origin etcetc :badmood: :badmood:

the only thing i have found that works, is to tell her quite clearly what i want done and by when, and fine her out of her pocket money of she doesnt do it (she likes money, you see)

oooh, you have got me on a right rant here!!!!! fantastic thread, DG :thumbs:

[tortoise]

I just ignore it!! If he doesn't put his washing in the laundry bin it doesn't get washed and then when he is out I take a black sack up once a month and chuck things away!!

You know all thoses silly little toys from fast food places and off comics etc.

Other then that make him pretend to be Harry Potter and put him in the cupboard under the stairs!! :thumbs:

Only joking!

[er 59]

hi dg

i used to have a sin bin anything left on the floor went in it and was emptied once a week in the dustbin i never told them which day it would be emptied on

it kept them on their toes and it worked fairly well untill they sussed out that some things magically reappeared in their rooms and hadnt been thrown away at all
(im far too soft for my own good) :blush:

so i switched to a simple rule three warnings and then loss of pocket money :o

[sp54]

My 3 are a lot older than yours, DG, but I gave up trying a couple of years ago! They now have to clean their own rooms or it doesn't get done. I change their bedding and do their laundry if it is put in the laundry basket, but other than that I close their bedroom doors as I lose the will to live if I see the state they are in!! :lol:
The eldest son is not too bad, and the youngest, a girl, is the best of all, but the middle son needs a health hazard warning on his door. People have been known to go in there and disappear! Believe it or not, the little chauvanist would prefer to let his current girlfriend tidy up [whilst the relationship is still in it's infancy and the girl is trying to show how good she is domestically :lol: :rolleyes: ] When he hasn't got a girlfriend he would rather pay his sister to do it.
I think he is a lost cause. Kim and Aggie would have a field day in his room :blush: :hihi: :lol: