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Houston Babies
cleaning up question & advice needed
How would you handle the following situation?
With fifteen minutes before you need to walk out of the door, you tell your toddler to clean up. She doesn't. Instead, she sits by the mess and cries. She knows your leaving and is excited about going, just doesn't want to clean up.
This doesn't happen all the time, sometimes she's a great cleaner, but nothing is predictable in a toddler world.
The way I ended up handling it was to sit beside her (it was a pile of books she needed to put up) and hand her each book. She put them in the bin and was happy to do so. We left the house without incident.
Was this a good way to handle it (on an ongoing basis)? I thought 15 minutes was plenty of time, any more time and I'm afraid she'll just pull them all out again. And I already had said she needed to clean up, so I didn't want to do it for her. So thoughts?
Also, what do you think is appropriate level of helpfulness to expect from your 1.5 to 2.0 year old?
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Re: cleaning up question & advice needed
I think they most certainly should be able to help pick up and things like that. But I've learned that even at almost 4... she often doesn't pick up all of it unless I'm pointing each thing out to her. That given, I think you did the right thing. If you make it a horrible experience, you'll get more resistance each time. Instead, we try to make it a game (who can pick up the most toys? etc) or sing the clean up song while I "help" her pick up. This way, she gets that she made the mess, so she has to help pick it up (although at 4, I expect way more doing it herself than I would at 2) and put things back in order.
Crazy Christmas Kids!
I think you did a great job!
At 2, they are really more helpers than doers. Even at 3, I often help T clean up bigger messes. I keep his autonomous "jobs" small, like putting his dirty clothes in the hamper, so that he can do them and get that sense of accomplishment. As he gets bigger his jobs increase in scope and number. This will really hit home when he starts Montessori this fall!
To put in your arsenal, a mom on HKG posted this and it was worked brilliantly for us: if T won't help me clean up, I tell him if I clean it all up myself the toys become mine. I will take them to my room. He instantly starts cleaning with me and doesn't stop until it's done. Love it!
This backfired on me. I told her I would throw them away (and I have, they've gone in garbage bags never to be seen again... and then on to Goodwill.) and her answer several times has been "okay, that's fine" UGH girls and their attitudes! LOL I haven't done the "mine" thing though. Maybe I'll try that instead.