Teaching your kid to be responsible and clean up their room requires more than just giving them orders. You need to be patient and sympathetic to them, not make them feel like cleaning is a punishment.
Are you looking for a way to make this ordeal manageable? Luckily for you, here are four tips to gradually get your child to clean their room.
Tip #1. Ease your kids into chores
Cleaning is not the most enjoyable thing to do. So, if you need to prepare yourself mentally to get into a cleaning mood, now imagine how your children might feel. How can you help them? Let them know what to expect!
For example, a friendly warning like “When your cartoon ends, you need to clean your room” prevents you from being too sudden in replacing a fun activity for your kids with a boring chore. You can also involve your children in creating a schedule so they know when cleaning time is.
Tip #2. Assign children tasks appropriate for their age
Kids are still developing their mental and physical abilities. If you assign them chores beyond their skills or reach, they can feel frustrated and insufficient—loathing cleaning even more.
So, the best thing to do is to give your kids appropriate chores for their age. For example, while kids of all ages can basically toss the dirty laundry in its basket, older kids can make the bed or handle cleaning tools like a mop and vacuum cleaner.
Tip #3. Show them how to do the task
Making children do something they don’t really know can frustrate them, and just telling them the instructions doesn’t help sometimes. Your best approach is showing your kids how the task is done first.
As you recreate the task, describe the steps you take—be as specific as possible so they are clearer for your child. Then, invite your kid to help you and aid them if they get stuck.
Do this whenever you need your child to do a specific task they struggle with, and as many times as necessary until they get a hold of it.
Tip #4. Recognize your child’s efforts
Recognizing your kid’s responsibility will help them see cleaning chores in a better light and improve their confidence and self-esteem.
Reward your children with something they like whenever they fulfill their cleaning duties. However, you need to tread carefully, or they will do it only for the reward. Alternatively, a simple “Well done!” or “Thanks for your help” can mean so much to them.
Eventually, they’ll begin to associate cleaning chores with positive feelings.
What can you do if your kid refuses to clean?
Just like adults, kids aren’t always in the mood for cleaning and might go as far as displaying temper tantrums. When this happens, don’t argue with your kid to avoid making things worse. Instead, let some time pass so the situation calms down.
Also, don’t punish your kid; talk with them about the consequences that come with their actions, but in a friendly manner. For example, if they refuse to clean, tell them they’ll have to do it later anyway but will use part of their play or TV time.
Last but not least, if you have more than one child, be sure to distribute chores equally. Otherwise, they could feel like you’re not being fair, causing more resistance to cleaning tasks.
We can help you to tackle your chores!
Teaching your kids to clean by themselves is a process that takes time. So, what about cleaning the rest of your home? Rochester Residential & Commercial Cleaning will take over your cleaning duties while you spend time with your children. Book online with us now!
