mess

[carly1]

any other mums out there that find it a constant battle (esp in the hols ) to keep your houses tidy? i find my h
ouse is always a mess and it drives me bonkers!!

[mycats]

Gawd you should see my sons bedroom just now! Whata tip

[yinyang]

You could always do what a friend of mine does. Her liitle girl(4) is allowed one book or toy out at a time and it must be put properly away before she can choose 1 more item. This is taken to the extent that if she is playing with a box of 100 bricks they have to be counted to make sure they are all there before she can put it away, She does have a very tidy house but seems a bit extreme to me.
My house is like a bombsite at the moment. The kids do help me tidy up the worst of it but I wait till they're in bed then do a 10 minute blitz so we can find a space to sit down.

[beejaybee]

Kids are never to young to learn to put things away. If it`s their things all over the place, they`re responsible for putting them away. Your their mother not their slave.

[janetsflower]

Mines the same - a constant tip - clean up every day and somehow it always needs doing again the next day. Lifes too short to get wound up about it and kids are too precious to moan at them ALL the time so sometimes i just shut up and put up and other times i scream and shout. Neither method works so just take comfort in the fact we all have the same problem. i keep my sons door shut most of the time and that way i can't see the chaos and just blitz it every now and then.

[mimififi]

we tidy up as we go, but somedays, esp rainy ones with five children in the house, 3 of whom are under 5, you just have to accept that this is what the house looks like.

I really battle with it too. I am a very neat person and live with 6 others who are so NOT neat, however, I constantly remind myself that in about 16 years time, these children will not be under my feet or in the house anymore and I shall have the rest of my life to clean and neaten and tidy....I expect I shall then be saddened by my empty nest.

At the moment, there is a pile of washing up to do which i am just too tired to do (I also babysat for my sister's 3 today, which made quite a lot of chidren) the dressing up is out, and there are various toys, books etc. But hubby is away, it's only me here, I m having a night off and I'm gonna tidy in the morning with the kids and they will help me; itll be done in no time.

try to rise above it. Encourage the kids to tidy up afterthemselves, but ateoftd, if they were taken from you tomorrow, you would wish you had held them more, had take out more in stead of cooking, and played more games and watched them sleep and held their hands; you would not wish that you had tidied up more. No one ever wished on their death bed that they had done more housework.

[ma_to_2]

HAHAHAHHAHAH Its not just me! lol We need a contraceptive pill for housework thats the solution!
I have now sorted out my front room so that it contains NO toys! They belong and have homes in my DD room, and if she gets it out she has to put it away. We are still struggling at the mo but getting there. If she doesn't do it then they go into a naughty box and are confiscated.

Then, me other half gets home and it all starts again!

[harriman]

Unfortunately I am lazier than the kids and I really need Kim and Aggie.
I find it difficult to be strict about the kids tidying up when I don't do it myself. The house gets i na right mess with 6 of us living her (+dog and cats etc)
However, the kids are always clean and well fed and as happy as Larry. I go with them to swimming, cricket, football, art class. I am a Girl Guide Leader and run a Toddler Group - these activities are far more pleasurable.
I have some 'friends' who 'politely' say that they couldn't live like I do but then they're Stepford Wives!!
Get out of the house - if you're not there you don't see the mess!