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: 06-24-2008
Fri, 07-30-2010 - 12:12pm
I agree. DD will often not eat what we're eating as a main course. It would be a lot different to me to cook something entirely different for her, than to just put some jelly and peanut butter on the table as an alternative. I also think cooking entirely different meals for kids and adults discourages the kids from learning to eat grownup food. I mean, I'm hoping that eventually DD will get tired of the PB&J and start trying more of the things DH and I eat.



How does "cooking and serving a different meal" teach some lesson that is different from "not cooking and serving a different meal"? Just because she's eating PB&J instead of {insert something you would cook}? If you were to serve her a meat, vegetable or fruit that she'd eat, would that be so bad? Wouldn't she then be helping her to learn to eat "grownup food"?



I am just not getting how it's so wonderful to let your child eat a sandwich whenever she doesn't want what the family is having, but heaven forbid if another mother actually puts the alternative food on the stove and cooks it.

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



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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2000
Fri, 07-30-2010 - 12:12pm
I've never had much luck with the crockpot. I have one, and have used it a few times to make main course meals if I won't be home and want to cook it while I'm out, but when I make that same meal on the stove and slow cook it on the stove, it just tastes much better to me.
iVillage Member
Registered: 05-10-2009
Fri, 07-30-2010 - 12:14pm

Yep.


Even dishes designed to cook slow don't work well in my situation.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2000
Fri, 07-30-2010 - 12:21pm

Perhaps part of the problem is that 6-8 hours is a lot of leeway! If you put something in there and it's done after six hours, but you aren't home for seven, then it's going to be overcooked. I never knew just how long to keep things in the crockpot, plus you aren't supposed to open it while cooking. I find that hard to do if I'm trying to determine if something is actually done or not.

And yes, even when I was working, I was never gone less than 9-10 hours. I worked 8.5-9 hr days at a minimum, plus commute time. It just seemed like more work to me than just planning menus that don't take more than 35-40 minutes to prepare and cook. You can cook a stuffed chicken breast in less than 30 minutes!

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-08-2009
Fri, 07-30-2010 - 12:22pm
The point here is not who teaches the child the skill, but that the child acquires the skill and is thus further along the road to becoming a competent, functional, and independent human being.
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-15-2006
Fri, 07-30-2010 - 12:24pm
LOL.

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-24-2010
Fri, 07-30-2010 - 12:25pm
Kind of a funny tire changing story/memory. When I was about 20 my boyfriend was teaching me how to change a tire. I don't remember if he thought I should know how or if I thought I should know how. But anyhow we are in the driveway of the duplex I lived in doing this and a male neighbor (who I had never met) came outside and was offended that I was changing the tire and not the male standing nearby. He proceeded to tell us how chivalrous men would not let a woman do that and took over changing it. I did tell him that I was learning how to do it but he took over nonethless. At this point in my life I wouldn't have let him take over I would have told him more forcefully to bug off. SAddest part of the story is that the girlfriend/wife with him was sporting a black eye. (partly the reason why I didn't want to make a fuss with him). Wife beating is not a problem to his kind of chivalry evidently. And yes I did assume that I don't KNOW if he gave her that. But chances are good that he did.

“Clearly," said Arthur,"you're an idiot- but you're our kind of idiot. Come on.” 
― Markus ZusakThe Book Thief

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-08-2009
Fri, 07-30-2010 - 12:25pm
I try to have something at each meal that each person at the table will eat. If we have, for instance, pork roast with mashed potatoes and green beans, and one of the kids won't eat the green beans, it is no big deal. They won't starve if they have no green beans. One of my kids won't eat any kind of lasagna, so if we have that, he usually just has the sides. He won't starve.
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-15-2006
Fri, 07-30-2010 - 12:30pm
my kids would love you, i'm not a short order cook.

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-24-2010
Fri, 07-30-2010 - 12:31pm

I love peonies.

I used to have delphiniums and one day a lady I did not know stopped and complimented me on them & asked if she could cut some. I thought that odd, since she wasn't a friend or even an acquaintance. I said no.

“Clearly," said Arthur,"you're an idiot- but you're our kind of idiot. Come on.” 
― Markus ZusakThe Book Thief

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