Comments on: Getting kids to help out with cleaning

By: John

John — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 19:29:27 +0000

I come from a large family (Ten) and after my sisters left and started families of their own, that left five boys at home. I was the oldest of the five and at age ten I was doing almost everything around the house, as well as changing diapers on my two youngest brothers.My father owned a large lott where we lived and I remeber many grueling hours of taking care of the yard that he was so proud of.My two brothers that were right under me as far as age wise goes helped out as much as they could too.Today however kids feel that they should not have to do much at all. I think as a Nation we have become a bit lazy and have become to acoustomed to the easy life. Now don’t get me wrong there are still plenty of hard working Americans out there but most are over the age of twelve ; )

By: missy

missy — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 17:45:56 +0000

hello rachael i have a 11year old douaghter she dont understand she have have to fellow the rules what can i do to make her help.

By: Mary Evans

Mary Evans — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 23:49:51 +0000

Great Ideas. I am forwarding them to my daughter who is always short of time to do cleaning and has 3 children ages 6 to 12 who can lend a hand so Mom can have more time to spend with them. Nana in Colorado.

By: Mary Derschan

Mary Derschan — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:21:18 +0000

Remember, many hands make the work light! A phrase I lived by when I had 4 teenagers and had to go back to work.

I used to give them each a spray bottle and a damp rag. Their job was to, from the front door to the back door, go around the house and get rid of all the fingerprints. Of course there were always a few spray bottle fights but that got the job done.

I also gave them jobs to do during the week before I got home from work, and when they didn’t do them during the week, I would get them up early on Saturday morning and them we would all clean house.

Naturally, I would go back to work on Monday to rest!

Here’s another hint. I told them that they had to clean their rooms, and that if they didn’t, I would clean them myself on Saturday. When their bedrooms weren’t cleaned by them by the weekend I would go through them like a madwoman and clean from top to bottom.
They didn’t like that because I would get rid of everything that was tacky or that I didn’t think was appropriate or that just plain smelled. I always got rid of these objectionables in the waste bin at the grocery store.

In order to do this one has to believe in equal rights for parents. It does help to really know who is the boss.