A Neat and Clean House vs Children
Find a Conversation
| 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
But that is you. There are many people who were *made* to eat things as kids, many who were not allowed to get up from the table until ALL of their food was finished. As adults they might be picky because what they used to eat as a kid was not what they really liked and were made to eat.
My guess is that there is a correlation there. Which is one of the reasons, I don't make my picky eater DD eat things she doesn't want to eat. However, I also know people who were catered to as children who also refuse to eat the same things as adults that they refused as children.
A good example why I feel this way: DH and I have really different preferences when it comes to food. He is completely and totally a meat and starch kind of guy. I prefer veggie-based meals. Since we both are willing to try pretty much everything, we've been able to find lots of interesting foods that are good compromises for us. The most recent example was Thursday night. We belong to a CSA and got eggplant, zucchini, and green peppers in our share. Those happen to be some of DH's least favorite vegetables. He decided to make Ratatouille and absolutely loved it. As we were eating, he commented that he really thought he would hate it, since it had all of his least favorite vegetables in it. I don't want my kids to miss out on that kind of culinary discovery, because they, for example, refuse to ever eat anything with eggplant. An example on my end was braised, stuffed porkchops. That's not the kind of thing I usually go for, but I loved it.
I don't think anyone here has proposed MAKING a child eat what is served. I don't see any problem with serving a child food and then letting the child CHOOSE whether to 1) eat what has been served or 2)come up with their own (reasonably healthy) alternative.
Nothing wrong with that. Were you disagreeing with what I said in the previous post or just tacking this on to the end of the thread?
I have found accommodating preferences to be not that big of deal, and compared to trying to remove all wheat, barley and rye from my meal plan it's no big deal at all. It hasn't resulted in whiny, bratty children. Picky and whiny/bratty aren't synonymous.
Ten Rules for Being Human
Malcolm Gladwell Blink
ITA! Me too!
I'm a big fan of Paula Deen!!! I don't think there is any show on Foodnetwork (or HGTV) that I do not watch ha ha
I love the challenges, those are cool. Dh and I watch Foodnetwork lineup on the weekends together, fun!
-
<<making them eat it or just have *fruit* for dinner is another. >>
Did someone suggest either of those things?
Pages