If you’ve been trying to get your son to clean up his room or just clean up after himself, you may want to invest your time in a few of these tips to get them to clean up their rooms—and keep it that way!
1. Teach them young
If you are just starting to teach your kids at age fourteen, good luck! It’s not easy and you’ll need to work extra hard. It’s like cement—when first poured, you have the opportunity to mold and make it what you need. Once it’s hardened, you need jack hammer and a lot more back breaking work to get it to do what you need. Same thing with kids, start them as young as you can to learn to clean up after themselves.
2. Be consistent
Don’t expect your kids to do this automatically every time. Be consistent. EVERY.SINGLE.TIME they leave something out, make them put it away. Is it a pain? Yes, but it will pay off later in life. If you aren’t consistent—just like with bad behavior and discipline—you will be sorry!
3. Don’t expect perfection
Listen, I KNOW it’s easier if you do it yourself and have things looking the way YOU’D like it to. But, they are kids. They aren’t perfect. Teach them, again and again. Show them how. Don’t expect it to be perfect or go back and fix everything they did.
4. Be patient
Most likely, your child won’t get the task of cleaning and picking up the first time, the way you want it. Be patient, kind, and loving—but firm about finishing the task!
5. Don’t take over
Don’t get frustrated and say something like “Oh forget it, it’s easier if I do it myself”—because they’ll be on to you and make you frustrated on purpose so they don’t have to do it—EVER!
I believe it’s our jobs as parents to raise independent children who can do things for themselves, not depending on everyone around them to do it. I have a child with autism and he is expected to do everything I talked about above. He is probably more independent and responsible than most typical kids his age. Please don’t use that as an excuse—expect great things from your kids and they will definitely attain this ability!
