I really hoped that when I took the kids' toys away it would help our house stay cleaner. But it didn't. The kids still have SETS of things--card-making stuff, bead set, dress-up clothes, and art supplies. Along with Legos, homemade Lincoln logs, and Hot Wheels cars for the boys.
Doesn't matter what they have, or don't have, they wreck everything. Daily. Hourly. Minutely.
I know they're young and playing, these days are fleeting, yada yada, and it shouldn't upset me. But it does. I can't stand it. I want them to learn responsibility and consequence but it seems like they just don't. get. it.
Yesterday afternoon Hannah worked to tidy up her room. And within half hour the kids were all in there playing again and they TRASHED IT. All the blankets thrown off the bed, the bed was moved and pulled out from the wall, chairs and STUFF all shoved BEHIND the bed, card paper everywhere, dress-up clothes everywhere, laundry everywhere. Of course THEY are the ones that have to clean it ALL back up but it takes more than an hour to enforce that. Excruciating minutes of enforcing and following thru and making sure everyone's helping, and helping dictate where all the crap goes back to. It's so awful, and I hate it, really really really hate it.
This scenario is basically what happens every day, all the time. Spend hours cleaning up and then it EXPLODES again within minutes. Out-of-control EXPLODES. A handful of bracelet rubber bands tossed onto the couch or floor or table in a second takes 30 minutes to pick up and sort back out!
So please, I'm pleading, what's the solution?? How do you handle these situations?
6 comments:
I don't believer there is a solution , it is life with children. They do grow so fast . It sounds like your doing everything right, just be patient and keep guiding them with the truth of Gods word!
Praying you get to have time to yourself , this will certainly help.
Hugs to you.
Praying for you and your little ones!
It is so hard to be in the middle of it all and be able to not feel like exploding at the some point. So often it feels like I am fighting an uphill battle, and the scenery just doesn't change, but what has helped me is to remove myself for even a minute, take a deep breath, ask God to give me patience and perspective and then get back to it. It's hard, we are challenged, but it's worth it. A study that my ladies group recently did was Unglued by Lysa TerKeurst, and it was great for addressing some of these issues. Blessings, Megan
I laughed as I read this post-not because I think it's funny but because we go through the exact same thing multiple times every day. I'm glad we are not the only ones who struggle with letting kids be kids while trying to teach them about responsibilities and consequences/rewards. I just pray a lot and try to remember they are learning eventhough they might not always seem to be listening!
OK what we do is set a timer. We look at the mess, figure out about how much time it SHOULD take to clean up, and set it and let them go. Whatever they don't pick up, they don't get. And for some reason, they usually pick up what they like LAST so it's gone for the next day (or remainder of this day).
Some timed you just need to let kids be kids. Too much structure is not necessarily a good thing. Structure comes when it is time to put away and clean up.
Sometimes we as parents need to "chill out"
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