A Neat and Clean House vs Children
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| 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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I prepare special meals all the time, for one child it's a preference issue, for another it's sometimes a requirement. It's not a big deal to me.
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I brown up the hamburger w/the seasonings and then add to the tomato juice & the seasoning I have added in the slow cooker and then let is simmer, aaah, it is so good and smells wonderful.
My recipe title is 'hot dog sauce' but as I explained a little bit ago it is a really thick chilli (but very different from the chilli I serve as a soup w/hot dogs or bacon & grilled cheese on the side).
Really the time is just not that much.
I'm baking salmon and doing rosemary potato wedges in the oven. Adding a piece of chicken to the oven and wrapping up a potato to bake that all goes in the oven very simple. I'd rather do that than take the time to pull out the stuff to make a sandwich (even if we could use peanut butter)
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That's the way I do it - so yummy. I tried to do it all on the stove once, but it just wasn't the same as letting it slow cook for an hour absorbing all the flavors without heating up the kitchen.
Let me rephrase, just in case I get misintepreted. I won't make a child a special, separate meal.
We do a lot of special meals, in the sense of -- The Boy loves sweet potatoes and pork loin, so I'll make a meal that is sweet potatoes, pork loin, and asparagus.
I just plan it out in my two-week menu plan and yes, it is really NO BIG DEAL.
I'm standing in the kitchen putting bbq pork chops in the oven, to place a piece of chicken in another dish and put it in the oven beside that dish and they bake together, that is super easy, I'm happy to do it.
I mix up a hashbrown casserole to put in the other oven and I wrap up a potato to bake along beside it. Again, easy peasey!
I don't eat, won't touch and can't stand the smell of mexican food but I do make it for my dh who is the only one in the house that will eat all of that.
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