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: 08-22-2009
Fri, 07-30-2010 - 7:54am
Really I don't know anyone in TX with a double oven. You may mistaking the little part of TX that you live in with the entire state.
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-08-2009
Fri, 07-30-2010 - 7:56am
Yes, that is true. I have been farming out the teaching of what I consider to be basic life skills since te kids were toddlers and I signed them up for swim lessons.
Avatar for rollmops2009
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-24-2009
Fri, 07-30-2010 - 7:59am
Yes, swimming is a good example. I found a swimming day camp for dd at some point to make sure she learned well. It was a logical consequence of my not being able to swim and not wanting to go in the water myself.

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Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness.
– George Orwell
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-17-2007
Fri, 07-30-2010 - 8:02am

Okay, I can see that.

I have been toying with learning to bake bread well. There was an author on Diane Rehm a month or two ago that wrote a book about baking a loaf every day and his search for the perfect loaf. It intrigued me.

Last year, I had the same feeling about making cheese and discovered it was beyond my ability to learn it myself. So, I will wait to go to cheese school when I am an empty nester.

Avatar for rollmops2009
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-24-2009
Fri, 07-30-2010 - 8:08am

Cheese is way more involved than bread. Currently my mother and brother are on a sourdough rye kick (the traditional, Danish, dense black bread). That they only bake once a week, because it needs to rise a long time as well as bake a long time, and besides it keeps extremely well.

However, regular bread is not at all difficult, very forgiving. If it has yeast and flour, it will usually come out ok.


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Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness.
– George Orwell
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-15-2006
Fri, 07-30-2010 - 8:13am
yes, HOAs exist here, not there, too..that's what IME is for.


Edited 7/30/2010 8:21 am ET by egd3blessed

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-15-2006
Fri, 07-30-2010 - 8:19am

swim lessons are a life skill, i agree..i taught mom and baby lessons and placed my kids in swim lessons even though i was capable of teaching them myself.

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-22-2009
Fri, 07-30-2010 - 8:25am

HOAs exist here (and in every other part of TX I have lived in). Just because I have never lived in a neighborhood with an HOA does not mean they do not exist.

You IME is the suburbs of one area of TX. Your IME is not the entire state of TX.

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-15-2006
Fri, 07-30-2010 - 8:29am

Your IME is not the entire state of TX.


thank you, i won't assume otherwise.

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-09-2010
Fri, 07-30-2010 - 8:46am

No peanut butter, peanuts or tree nuts....ALLERGY!


I prefer to prepare a meal for my child. A good plate of food not just a salad or sandwich. I do not mind doing it at all, it is my pleasure.


Polkadots&FlipFlops

Polkadotandflipflops

 

 

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