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Pre-School and Daycare
anna7602
member
Cleaning up DD's mess, a poll
anna7602
member
Let's say your 3.5-year-old cut up a bunch of colored construction paper into tiny, tiny pieces that she can't possibly pick up from the rug on her own and that the vacuum won't quite gather all of, either. Who cleans up? [Poll]
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Re: Cleaning up DD's mess, a poll
hmmmm - this seems like a fight brewing. ... .
I think probably the kid plus on whoever's watch this occured should clean it up!
Definitely a fight brewing, how did you guess?
Come on! Let's hear the whole thing. ... .
DD -- 5YO
DS -- 3YO
I'd make it a game and see who can get the most pieces of paper up while a song is playing, or something similar. "Winner" can get a treat (or whatever it takes to get your DD to be the "winner."). Follow this "game" with a chat about places/times that it is okay to use scissors from now on.
Re: the brewing fight, I'm not sure this is a hill I'd want to die on. I'd clean up whatever is left, come up with a plan for next time with DH, and work with him to determine what happens next time when the rules aren't followed.
Your options kinda make it seem like one of the parents is to blame and the punishment it to clean-up. Play is messy and clean-up is a part of life. Either parent can do it, it shouldn't be an issue. If one of the parents refuses, then that's an issue.
agreed
~after 34 cycles we finally got our 2nd little bundle of joy~
My IF blog
I'd like to mention that cutting little snips of paper is actually a pretty important developmental skill. I understand the mess can be frustrating, but try to celebrate that your LO is developing fine motor skills necessary for writing. I think that whichever parent is digging in heels about "whoever bought it should clean it up" might be missing the value of the activity.
Also agree with pp that kiddo needs to be involved in the cleanup. It can be fun for them to see how many little pieces they can find. We had a similar issue with play dough pieces last week. DD did her best and I vacuumed the rest today.
Thanks, everyone. Longer story- I cleaned up while DH watched and gave DD a free pass to stop when she got too frustrated at how hard it was to pick up teeny, tiny pieces. I got a speech from him about how it was unreasonable to expect her to clean up a mess like that. Oh, and I'm the parent who bought the construction paper. And the one who didn't think it was okay to just leave little colored pieces of paper all over the living room all week.
I was pretty infuriated and thought, like many of you, that cleaning up should have been a family activity. And I knew that if it didn't happen on Sunday night, it wouldn't happen at all during the rest of the week.
The vacuum we have couldn't cut it. We're renting a furnished apartment right now and the vacuum came with it.
Whichever parent gets to the mess first. We don't have a you made the mess you clean it up policy or you were not watching the kids close enough and now there is a mess policy. If you see a mess just clean it up, we both like our house nice and neat as much as possible. Now with that being said, when the girls make a mess of their room or playroom, they are the ones cleaning it up.
For this case, if I was home and it happened, then I would just clean it up, but have the girls help me as best they could. I want them to learn if you play and have fun, but make a mess you need to clean up after yourself not don't just let it lay around for someone else to clean up later.