"Cleaned" DD's room

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-18-2005
"Cleaned" DD's room
3
Tue, 03-14-2006 - 5:58am

I have had sort of a hands off approach to DD's room - if she feels comfortable there, then it's her mess, I'll let it go. But even this messy mom has a limit, so this past weekend I offered to "help" DD clean her room. Mostly I watched and kept her company, but I also sort of coached her. At one point, she said "done" and I said "what's that over there?" and she said "Oh" and cleaned one more spot. It's still not "clean" or even "neat", but at least you can walk through from the door to her desk, all the clothes are hung up, there's no trash on the floor, books are on a bookshelf, and there's room for her to sit and do homework (not at the desk, horrors how boring, but on the floor with floor pillows).

About once a month I encourage her to go through the piles and neaten up. This time we went a little too long, but she eventually did it without too much complaining!

Sue

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-16-1999
Tue, 03-14-2006 - 7:08am

Sue,


How cool that you spent the time with DD while she was cleaning!

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-21-2005
Tue, 03-14-2006 - 8:01am

I did the same thing with my dd about two weeks ago! My approach has always been that the room is part of the house and should be kept - at least closely - to the standards of the rest of the house. When dd has her own place that she's paying rent for, she can be a slob - or not - it's up to her. I've even gone so far as to cheefully clean her room for her (after issueing several warnings) and then charge her $10 a pop!

Because of the many self-esttem issues she's dealt with since the beginning of the year - and the general business of our lives - I allowed it to slide quite a bit. She even admitted that it was too messy for her tastes and I sent her up several times over the last month to tackle it. She'd do a little bit of straightening and then get distracted .. trying on clothes, looking through buried treasures, putting on makeup & not much would get done.

I told her I was helping. At first she was less than thrilled but, like you, I just hung, offerend encouragement ,etc. I promised her I'd buy her a new comforter (but NOT the $200 Pottery Barn one she had her eye on!) when we were done. It looks great and she's thrilled. I must say, we found some rather odd things along the way but we had fun!

I told her that I'm back to charging her to clean it (and by that I mean, picking up after her ... I dust, vaccuum and do laundry for fre!). We'll see how it goes!
jt

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-20-2005
Tue, 03-14-2006 - 9:20am

Congrats!!

Must be the spring cleaning fever hitting - DD did one whole laundry and cleaned one of her two (yes two) bathrooms over the weekend. YEAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!

DH mopped the kitchen floor and vacuumed the living room last night. YEAAAAAA!!!!!!

I did about 5 loads of laundry this weekend as well. Still have two to do and its growing rapidly.