RSSPicking up
One of my goals has been to teach my daughter how to pick up after herself. I’m disappointed in myself that she didn’t learn that already. But we’re getting it figured out now.
In the four or five minutes before we leave for school in the morning, I go with Margaret into her room. We make the bed together. And when I say, “make the bed,” I mean take off all the crap she sleeps with each night, pull the coverlet up and put the pillows back on.
No, I didn’t forget to pull up the top sheet or blanket. Nope, she refuses to use a top sheet (I’ve put one on her bed many times only to have her kick it to the bottom of the bed each night. Picking your battles is Parenting 101) and she prefers to use this awesome faux fur throw I got for Christmas than a regular blanket.
Once the bed is made, we pick up the flotsam and jetsam littered around her room from the day before. Then we do the same thing in the bathroom. The whole thing takes about five minutes.
Some days she participates without question, some days there is … ahem … debate.
There is a similar nighttime routine now, too.
My hope is that the practice of picking up after herself will become routine and eventually she’ll do it by herself. I might be tilting at windmills, but this is way better than what we were doing. I used to just yell, “Pick up after yourself.” Margaret would reply by not picking up after herself.
We’re making progress. That makes mama happy.
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Good Job! Sometimes I think I should be working my boys harder, being more consistent about a cleaning routine. I have been trying to teach Soren to do his own laundry. I thought it wasn’t working until he remembered his dirty uniform, washed and dried it without being told while I was at work. My sitter was amazed and I was very, very excited that all my blah blah about the laundry finally paid off, at least once.