Bedrooms...

just a thought but you might be expecting too much for her age. remember you have to be specific...she may not have known you wanted everything in the right drawer.

you're gonna have fun with Maya!!! Some of us are naturally anal and tidy..Some of us just dont see the point! I was the latter and am still trying to turn my bad ways around. My mum tore her hairout over me and I remmeber being grounded many times as a teenager for things like that....not for smoking or drugs or boys...nope I was a good girl..just messy.

i am like that a bit, our girls have everything set into shelves and containers, so they know where things go we mostly have the rule that one thing goes away before another comes out. if you don't tidy up the first thing, you don't get the next thing .. so if one won't do it the other gets angry with them and encourages them or they both miss out. our girls are great, most kids that come round are good too, there are a few of paris's friends that like to come and whirlwind through her bedroom.. she is very spoilt, (not just by us but friends and family mostly.. i am one of 6, and mikes aunts and uncles buy for her too, theres 5 of them) but everything is kept in their sets, and kept nicely she has never broken or wrecked things so there's no need to get rid of them. But i have, found that the containers definately worked in keeping sets together like barbies and polly pockets and ponies and it means that one container comes out and it's all pretty tidy.

in saying all that, every month or so i dare to venture into their cubby house and usually find bit sna pieces from all manner of places hiding in there behind their couches.

They dont do their clothes as ours are all kept in the hot water cupboard (after last winter finding that the dampness in our house had made green thick mould sprout in all of the drawers of their new scotch chests, boy was i fuming i tell you)

i guess just perserverence. My girls hae jobs they must do, to be a helpful member of our house. (because we "all help each other in our family") this include, putting their jammies under their pillows after getting dressed in the mornings, putting tables and chairs away after meals, getting out their messy mats prior to meals and setting up their tables on them (i do the mats after meals cos i need too, lol, usually thanks to miss ayja's idea of telling shes finished which invloves emptying remnants off her plate onto messy mats.) and putting towels away inthe hamper, or washing or their int he hamper if they have to be changed or after baths etc.   smalls jobs but mainly revolving around letting them know they need to clean up after themselves.

We tend to help them clean up, but only if they are needing encouragement.. and if they stop helpingus, we stop, and they have to come back otherwise, no clean up, no other toys out, = boredom.

(how mean are we?) lol

sorry, long post.

Great one Janine!

Emma we have "tidy time" right after dinner, although if I could I'd choose just before dinner instead (better motivation ). We expect a helping attitude from Briona and a decent amount of tidying by Hannah, we all tidy the lounge together and then have stories and then get ready for bed etc. Maybe some together helping might be helpful for Maya? I bet that's next to impossible with two babies as well, but that's all I can think of

Oooh Janine - you sound like the kind of mum I WANT to be, hehehehe

I keep thinking Joey is too small but he is definitley ready and has lately been putting dirty clothes in the hamper, helping set the table and helping tidy up his toys but that's it. Will be easier getting him into it when we have our own place again I guess

newmum wrote: Oooh Janine - you sound like the kind of mum I WANT to be, hehehehe

Me too!

I love the pictures on the drawers idea Liz.

The problem is that she *knows* where stuff is supposed to go, she is just terminally lazy (like her mother). And I have gotten slack about supervising her - I used to always watch/help her put things away but I just haven't been doing it lately. Maybe I should....

I bought her some of those pink sparkly drawers from the Warehouse and she has one drawer for Barbies, one for Little People, one for blocks, one for My Little Ponies etc. but they're all in a bit of a shambles atm too.

yeah sometimes you have to admit defeat and just concentrate on one area. i mean, if one area is done well, then it sbetter than constantly having to battle with other areas that are so so. I constantly have to remind myself that they are only kids. paris is only 3, ayja is still not 2 yet. they are good kids and i need to not be such a tightlaced clean freak. lol

he he Emma, my mum never folds our washing right when she tries to help. We have a face cloths pile a bum cloths pile, a bath time face cloths pile (which are folded differently to the others) and a soft baby hands cloths pile. i do the same with the clothes, Ayja's daycare pants/tops/stockings/jerseys, then the same for paris, then piles of undies and singlets for each kid, then the piles of their good clothes to hang, in the same piles, tops pants skirts and jerseys.   We end up with piles and piles of washing. sheesh no wonder i hardly ever fold it.

Hmmmm, that might work. She gets $2 a week pocket money if she keeps her toys etc tidy but maybe breaking it down into 10c lots for individual things might help, that way it isn't either do an enormous amount of work or lose an enormous amount of money but rather small rewards for small jobs.
Thanks Teresa

I thought that was the normal way to fold washing Janine and Emma I must be "one of you" rofl