I try to enforce good personal hygiene. I make my kids shower, wash their hands after using the toilet, brush teeth twice daily. With teen boys, nothing short of holding them down and doing it myself will work…some days. Other days, they are all about self-motivation or a crush on a school mate of the female kind. But hey, whatever works.
The girls, well…they are as clean as can be, although a bit mangy sometimes. And exceptionally bitchy. Don’t let the prettiness and the clean hair fool you…girls are possessed by the devil or the ghosts of the Salem witches.
In the home, as you know, I struggle with getting the kids to do chores. I assign them and they fulfill their duties, with a huge fight, for a few days or maybe, if I’m lucky…weeks. And then nothing. So, we all give up. It’s easier than the constant arguing. I’m a chore enforcer failure. I can admit it though, but I don’t believe in that being the first step to the battle of recovery. And my husband will be the first to tell you that it’s all my fault, as well.
My house is clean but a mess, although, I wouldn’t recommend eating off the floors. Laundry is always piled on the dining room table. Things cluttering the kitchen table, making it harder to set the table for dinner. Swiffering twice daily is part of my day. Washer, dryer switcharoo. Loading and emptying dishwasher. Kids dropping stuff on the floor and leaving it. I’m constantly bent over and taking it up the…picking it up off the floor for them.
Apparently, I live with a bunch of barnyard animals. I’m exchanging the table for a trough and the beds for piles of hay.
It seems though, that I have become quite a hypocrite.
You see, I scream. LOUDLY. To get the kids to pick up their bedrooms. To give me the respect of putting away their clothes after I had so nicely folded them…which, I’ve stopped doing because no one puts their clothes away neatly so why bother. I beg…LOUDLY…for the kids to pick their garbage up off their bedroom floors and throw it in the trash.
I want their rooms neat. I do.
But somehow. Between all the yelling, screaming and cleaning…
My bedroom. The mecca of love room. That place where fun things happen at night…sometimes.
It’s become a sty. An absolute pigpen. Clothes everywhere. My yarn which I have stored in bins under my bed…everywhere. Thanks to the dog.
It’s a disgusting and vile excuse for a master bedroom.
In my defense, I spend so much time trying to keep the main floor neat that my bedroom becomes kind of like the shoemakers daughter type effect.
So, my husband got sick of me saying that I’ll get around to it. But, I really DID plan on getting around to it.
Instead though, he hired our cleaning lady. She came yesterday and folded all our clothes that were all over the floor after being dumped there when we were trying to quickly clean up the dining room table for the dreaded poker games.
We have a floor. A real, live bedroom floor. With hideous pink carpet.
When all the clothes were piled up around the room, we could ignore the fact that the carpet is vomit inducing and needs to be replaced. But now? No. There is no denying it.
We need new carpet. Something fierce.
Or we need to start throwing our clothes back down on the floor until we can afford new carpet.
Now, if only I can enforce the whole “do as I say, not as I do” concept. Because I’m NOT paying the cleaning lady to clean their rooms.
I can’t afford to recarpet the whole house.
I’m just going to stop blogging cuz you are living my life. 🙂
I’m a chore enforcement failure too. My children…I swear are raised by wolves, that aren’t me. And it’s easier for me to just DO IT QUICKLY than hound over them while it takes them 2 hours to clean up a room that would take me 20 minutes.
When the last one gets into school, I’m going back. And when I’m working hubz and I already decided we are going to hire a housekeeper for a once a week scrub of the house. I can’t wait!
LizzB (@hereslizz)´s last blog post ..Doin’ It Disney Style
Oh, unfortunately, I can so relate! Our carpeting is so stained and disgusting (3 kids, 1 VERY large dog, and 4 cats), that I almost hate to vacuum because it removes the animal hair and looks worse when I’m done! As much as I want (need) new carpet, it isn’t in the budget right now, and even if it were, I’m not sure it would be a good investment until my youngest is in school all day, and is out of the flinging the sippy cup across the room whenever the mood strikes (which is ALL THE FREAKING TIME) stage! Good luck!
Kids are supposed to have chores? I kid, I kid. But seriously, Baby Girl is only five. She basically has ONE chore that I want her to do every night. Take the dirty clothes from the bathroom/bedroom to the laundry room. That’s it. I still have to nag and yell to get her to do it. I don’t see it getting any better or easier as she gets older.
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With teens – it’s next to impossible to be a chore enforcer. But oh how I try. And I’m not nice about it either. He can live in his own filth for the most part. Luckily, he’s not the type to leave dishes up there (maybe since I won’t let him take them up in the first place?). But once, about a week or so ago, it got so bad that there was no more room for the clothes on his floor – that they began creeping out into the hall. That’s when I said enough is enough. And informed him that if he didn’t pick them up and do his laundry that I would bag all his clothes and throw them away leaving him with what was just left in his closet (nothing). It’s amazing how that worked – because he knew I would. (well, just between you and me – and the internet – I would have bagged them and hidden them – do you know how much those things cost?!)
Gigi´s last blog post ..Oh to be young & bullet-proof….
I’m a chore enforcer failure, too. Of course, I don’t do much house work myself so I’m not very motivated. Luckily, I’m married to Mr. OCD. He keeps a pretty orderly house.
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You mean it doesn’t get any easier? I have a 9 year old and a 4 year old boys and I can totally relate to the picking up after themselves. Whenever they are done eating or drinking something they leave it where they finished it at. They also have a problem with a sock thief! I can’t ever find their socks, where do they disappear to? I mean one minute they are on their feet and the next it’s like they disappeared into thin air. My room has become a haven for all the unwanted things in the house but that will soon change because we are just about done with our new house and we will be moving soon! Time to lay down the law and set some new rules!!
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I feel the same way, However my kids are adults that are living with me and drive me nuts. My granddaughter also stay with me on the weekends. I can not get my adults to do anything. I get a fight or dirty looks because i asked my daughter to do the dishes and my son to cut the grass. no one knows where to put anything and asks me where it goes. Now mind you we have lived in this house for 16 years. My husband passed away in 2008 so it is an adjustment for all of us I know but this has been going on since they were 2 years of age. Chores is a bad word in my house acording to my kids. Sometimes I think they do it on purpose because they know I will do it. Tried to go on strike but did not work.