My Kids Are Slobs!

26 Jul

When we moved to The Hill, one of the things I was most excited about was the finished basement. FINALLY somewhere for all the kid’s crap to go!!! The basement was to become the Man Cave, and that includes the little men too. With a beautiful granite topped bar (with locking cabinets) and a full bathroom for daddy, and plenty of room and closet space for the boys and their toys, it’s a mother’s dream.

I try so hard to teach my children to be responsible little people, but clearly I’m doing something wrong since they absolutely refuse to keep it clean down there. Most kids play nicely with their toys and when they are done they put them away. Not my kids. I don’t think they even play with anything down there, I think they just pull out the bins and totes and dump everything on the floor. Once they’re done dumping everything out, they start throwing things at each other. It gets so bad down there that you can hardly see the carpet. I know what you’re thinking, why don’t you stay on top of them and keep it clean? I pick and choose my battles and that’s not one I want. I don’t have to look at it, so I put it out of my mind…Out of sight out of mind, that is until I need to go down there for something.

Just so you don’t think I’m exaggerating the level of mess I am dealing with, I took some photos. The boys were down there “playing” when I took the pictures and Cameron was so ashamed he started screaming and even tried to rip the camera out of my hands. When I asked him if he was embarrassed of how messy the basement was, he sobbed, “YYYYEEEEEES!”

Well gee kid, if you’re so ashamed then why the hell don’t you keep the place clean?

I now present to you my evidence…

Before:

Notice the bins strewn all over the room. Notice that not even the couches were safe from their messy rampage, the pillows are thrown here and there. The closest door can’t even be closed because there’s so much junk blocking it’s way.

I’ve thrown my hands up…I surrender. I am so sick and tired of cleaning this room that I refuse to do it anymore. So if I’m not going to do it and obviously the kids aren’t going to do, then who will? I enlisted Bill. Cameron went down with him to “help”, but I don’t  know how much help he actually was since he has the attention span of a gnat.

I have to say that when all was said and done, that the basement came out great. It looks so much bigger when it’s clean and tidy.

After:

Take a look at the finished product.

Why, oh why can’t we keep it this way? It’s such a nice space and we’re so fortunate to have it, I just wish it was always picked up so we can enjoy some family time down there. With all the heat we’ve been having in our neck of the woods, it gets hot in the house even with the air conditioning running, but it stays so nice and cool down there. As I look at these pictures I know the cleanliness won’t last long. It’s actually been more than 24 hours and it’s still clean, which I think might be some kind of record.

How do you get your kids to pick up after themselves? Is it something they just do? Is it a struggle? Do you have to threaten them? What am I doing wrong? Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thank you from a messy Mommyland!

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