A Neat and Clean House vs Children

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-17-2007
A Neat and Clean House vs Children
2597
Tue, 07-27-2010 - 8:35am

For those of you who like a neat and clean house, how do you keep it that way with children?

I find that if I am tied to goal of having a neat and clean house, I become a raging shrew against my children as they proceed to undo all the neatness I have worked so hard to attain. If I made a "neat and clean house" my goal, my children would not have their messy projects that take days/weeks to complete. My children would not pick up a book (casually left out)as they walk through the family room and browse through- discovering once again the mother actually knows about a few good books. I would let them watch more tv/computer time, as they don't make things as messy when they do. I would squash their ideas if I thought it would make too much of a mess. I wouldn't let them cook/experiment in the kitchen- as it is usually more work for me to clean up after they have "cleaned up". So, how do you inspire creativity and imagination in a neat and clean house? Are you on top of them to put things away as soon as they are done even if it is temporary? Where do you put the legos?....... Have you ever allowed them to take over the living room with all of their toys arranged in a city complex (thomas the train things were the Metro, legos and blocks were the buildings....)? How long would it stay up? Would let it be up for the summer so they could add to and change tings around as they got new ideas? Or allowed them to take over half of the family room for a month+ while they build and live in a beaver lodge (using all the empty shoe and other boxes and some that weren't empty)? Even if you have to walk around it everyday to get to the kitchen? Or do you require that all toys be put away everyday?

Pages

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-24-2008
Fri, 07-30-2010 - 5:17pm
So then for a food-refusing kid that is too young to make something themselves, would you only make something that can be self-made when they get a little older?

I agree that's a difference between PB&J and say chicken cooked in the oven, but what PD was saying earlier is that she serves something she knows that child will eat. So she doesn't get to the point the child refuses it and needs to make a sandwich, the child likes what is served because the meal was planned with that child in mind. Sounds like a lot of people do that, even if they don't necessarily prepare two sources of protein they may make sure there is something on the table that will be eaten. It seems to me ensuring every child has a source of protein they will eat on the table when dinner is served is not a bad thing at all.

Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth.' -Kahlil Gibran



Photobucket

Photobucket


Photobucket
Photobucket



Ten Rules for Being Human


Photobucket



"The key to good decision making is not knowledge. It is understanding."
Malcolm Gladwell Blink

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-22-2009
Fri, 07-30-2010 - 5:22pm
My DD2 was a very fussy eater and was allowed to prepare her own food if she did not like what was served at home. But she was taught that that was only true in the home. Elsewhere the option were to eat what was prepared or not to eat what was prepared. Asking for others to cater to you was not an option.
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-08-2009
Fri, 07-30-2010 - 5:23pm
I have had elementary age children ask me to pick the vegetables off their pizza for them (I tell them they are welcome to pick their own) but for the most part I find that the kids who are at our house for mealtime are well-behaved and fairly adventurous eaters. Recently we had a kid drop by around dinnertime and when my younger one asked if he could stay, I said yes, but that I didn't think it was a particularly kid-friendly meal as we were having pork roast stuffed with rosemary and garlic, mashed rutabagas, and I forget what vegetable but a rather unusual one. The kid said he was game and ended up trying everything and rather liking the roast.
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-24-2008
Fri, 07-30-2010 - 5:25pm
I had spent an entire morning preparing food for a party, and more than half of the party was spent dealing with a child's drama of not getting what they wanted to eat. I know it's obviously personality differences, but if my child acted that way, I would be mortified, so I tend to do what I can to prevent them from developing that expectation.



It sounds like they weren't mortified because it was their behavior at the center of most of the drama. If a parent wants to prevent that kind of behavior, the place to start is in the mirror. My ODD might not like what is served but she'd find something she could eat and just eat that, or take a small portion and try to eat it. Being catered to at home much of the time doesn't make her a brat, and doesn't make me fall all over her and myself trying to fix or change the situation in the presence of others. I've heard her tell people she's fine and not hungry, I've never had her demand someone else make her a special meal.



That little girl you describe has figured out exactly how to whip her parents into a frenzy all for her benefit, and it's likely got nothing to do with chicken nuggets.

Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth.' -Kahlil Gibran



Photobucket

Photobucket


Photobucket
Photobucket



Ten Rules for Being Human


Photobucket



"The key to good decision making is not knowledge. It is understanding."
Malcolm Gladwell Blink

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-22-2009
Fri, 07-30-2010 - 5:27pm
ITA
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-24-2010
Fri, 07-30-2010 - 5:57pm

I wish my house was clean!

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-04-2009
Fri, 07-30-2010 - 6:31pm
The difference isn't "here's a salad or sandwich" and "here's chicken and potatoes." The difference is "Here's chicken and potatoes" and "Go make yourself a salad or a sandwich if you won't eat what I made."

************

Kitty

Proud member of the Rainbow Poop Debate Squad

Meez 3D avatar avatars games

************

Kitty

"If you can't annoy somebody with what you write, I think there's little point in writing."-- Kingsley Amis, British novelist, 1971 t .

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-02-2010
Fri, 07-30-2010 - 6:35pm
Would you consider yogurt or fruit dinner?
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-02-2010
Fri, 07-30-2010 - 6:37pm
What age did you nurse to that you considered that a *meal*?
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-04-2009
Fri, 07-30-2010 - 6:47pm
A teenager is more than able to cook his/her own meal, in whatever quantity said teenager requires, if said teenager is still so childish as to refuse food cooked for him/her. A teenager should be ashamed if Mommy still has to cook him/her a separate meal, lest said teenager be hungry, in addition to shamefully picky.

************

Kitty

Proud member of the Rainbow Poop Debate Squad

Meez 3D avatar avatars games

************

Kitty

"If you can't annoy somebody with what you write, I think there's little point in writing."-- Kingsley Amis, British novelist, 1971 t .

Pages