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?

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-02-2010
Thu, 07-29-2010 - 9:32pm
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-09-2010
Thu, 07-29-2010 - 9:33pm

not all kids eat all the same things, not even at one dinner setting.


If I make spaghetti I have one child that won't touch it so I have to do chicken, potato, apples & grapes.


I have a grown girlfriend that won't touch chicken. Or turkey.


Polkadots&FlipFlops

Polkadotandflipflops

 

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-22-2009
Thu, 07-29-2010 - 9:38pm
I think my kids communicate more now then when they all lived here together. DD1 and DD2 are only 2 years apart but were not really friends when younger, they were not enemies just not friends. They have grown closer in the last couple of years. There is 6 and 4 years between them and DD3, a huge difference when they were young, not so much at their ages now.
iVillage Member
Registered: 12-07-2003
Thu, 07-29-2010 - 9:38pm

I have a crazy sweet tooth and alternate between thinking I should cut out all sweeteners (including sugar) altogether, using sugar (because it's natural),

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-10-2009
Thu, 07-29-2010 - 9:43pm

I pulled the number out of the air as an example.


Unless your children live in independent bubbles, or you take pretty heavy measures to keep it a secret, the other child would know.

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-10-2009
Thu, 07-29-2010 - 9:45pm

<>


I don't support making separate meals for children, just because they happen to not like the perfectly good meal the rest of the family is having. I certainly wouldn't expect someone else to cater to that attitude for my children.


<>


You don't *have to*. You choose to.

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-09-2010
Thu, 07-29-2010 - 9:53pm

Yes I choose to do it and I'm very happy with that decision! My Mom & motherinlaw

Polkadotandflipflops

 

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-04-2009
Thu, 07-29-2010 - 11:00pm
I grew up with that, too. What I did NOT grow up with was the 49 questions that apparently have to be cleared so that total strangers can do this for total strangers. See, when I was growing up, we did this for people we KNEW. Hence, we KNEW if they liked/disliked certain foods, if they had food allergies, if flowers would be welcome or not. And we did NOT bother people who were ill or going through troubles with 8 gazillion questions about how exactly we could best tailor our help to personalize the service as if we were in her head. Because that's completely counter productive to the entire point (which I had always believed was, "To be of Help and Simplify The Details of her Life", not Increase her stress levels until she wanted us dead.

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Kitty

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iVillage Member
Registered: 02-04-2009
Thu, 07-29-2010 - 11:11pm

Not counting maintenance, such as tire rotation? probably 3 or 4 times. I didn't keep track because I didn't know there would be a test on it.

I've also stopped to help other people change their tires. I am constantly amused by women who keep a pristine trunk--clean enough to eat out of--and thereby don't have a single tool that might actually prove of some assistance in tire changing. I keep a X-shape tire wrench and small hydraulic jack in my car all the time. Saves TONS of time in tire changing--and also helps when the tire store over tightens the lug nuts--you can stand on it and bounce on the left hand side. That is usually enough to force the issue. A can of Liquid Wrench is also helpful. I also keep jumper cables and a basic set of wrenches and screw drivers in the car, as well as a couple extra hose clamps, duct tape and a small pen knife. And BOTH kinds of anti-freeze--premixed when I can get it, other wise I buy full strength and use an extra anti-freeze container to dilute the new stuff (pour half the new into an empty container and then refill both of them with tap water. And of course, several quarts of oil. Also hand sanitizer and paper towels--they aren't a perfect clean up, but they get the worst gook off.

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Kitty

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"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: 02-04-2009
Thu, 07-29-2010 - 11:16pm

Yup.

If, after my knee surgery, someone had tried to deliver even half of what polka listed as one meal, it would have lasted me most of the 6 weeks I was home--the pain meds not only killed my appetite, but made me fairly nauseated, so I ate significantly less that whole time. It was everything I could do to eat a scrambled egg and half a piece of toast for breakfast then.

I remember one of the women at the church trying to organize meals for me when my grandmother died. She called to clear the schedule with me and I reminded her, "You do know, my grandmother lived in Arizona and the services will be in Illinois, right? So I'm not going to be home for the next week."

We compromised; she brought me a casserole before I left and I froze it.

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Kitty

Proud member of the Rainbow Poop Debate Squad

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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 .

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