Keeping a home in good condition is challenging enough on a daily basis. Add young children to the household, and it can be a nightmare. Not only the daily grind of picking up toys, but the accidental crayon marks on the floor and the extra tracked-in dirt can leave parents overwhelmed and feeling as if they’re constantly threatening Armageddon to achieve only a very low grade of tidiness.
Here are a few practices that can transform your home and your family, leaving you with relative cleanliness at home and, much more importantly, young people who are developing personal responsibility, home keeping skills, and confidence in their own abilities. The first principle is this: no one, not even a child, really prefers to live in chaos and disorder. Many of us prefer not to make the effort, and many really are not naturally inclined to organization or tidiness, but even these people prefer it when there are clean dishes in the cabinets and they can walk across the floor in bare feet without feeling filthy by the time they get down the hall.
If that is the premise from which you begin, then everyone in the household must contribute to the process. With children, it is far best to start them young, to make home keeping work a social event as far as possible, and to let them know that you trust their ability to do what needs to be done. The outcome is important not only for the state of your home, but for their development; pediatricians will tell you that children who have regular chores at home grow into young adults with higher self-esteem and a greater capacity to solve problems.
Tip #1/Start Them Young: Three-year olds can vacuum the house. You know those toy vacuum cleaners they sell for little kids? They light up and even make little vacuuming noises and kids love them. Well, Eureka sells the Quick-Up Cordless Vac. It’s light and easy to push, it picks up dust, dirt, and crumbs quite well, and a three year old boy or girl enjoys it even more than the toy, because it’s actually helping out. If only it worked this way with the toy lawnmowers!
Tip #2/Dishwasher Rock: Make a playlist to accompany various regular tasks at home. Your average seven-year-old will grouse about emptying the dishwasher, but not if you’re in the kitchen too and there’s some great 50’s rock playing. Or if you’re sorting the laundry on Saturday morning, get everyone involved and do it together. You’ll start out giving plenty of instructions, but soon they’ll know how it’s done. And somehow, sorting laundry seems a lot more fun if done by climbing into the tipped-over hamper to get things out than it is the normal way.
Tip #3/Yes, We Can!: Never let there be any room for doubt. Just as you can trim a hedge without cutting your arm off, of course your children can collect sticks in the yard or pick up the acorns. If you frequent a farmer’s market where you meet a farmer who wants them to feed her pigs, even better. Just as you can scrub the bathtub, of course your children can clean the mirrors. If you know they can do it, they will too, and your home will reap the benefits.
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