You don’t have to be Mary Poppins to make household chores a little more fun.
Tidy-up time: let’s face it, it’s not even fun for toddlers, no matter how we try to dress it up. Putting things away after they’ve had the fun of playing with them is dull, but necessary. And if you can’t get your kids to help, it’s going to be even more dull for you, and leave you feeling more like a slave than a mother. And yes, you really do have better things to do with your life.
So, what’s the solution? You’ve probably already discovered that ordering kids about only works up to a point, and must only be used in the direst of circumstances, while polite requests tend to waft in the ether, only to be ignored or merely regarded as you exercising your vocal chords for no apparent reason. (And yes, you must insert the words chocolate or ice cream if you want some level of recognition that you have actually spoken.)
Trick the kids into tidying up
Can you hoodwink them into doing it? Probably, but you need more than one trick up your sleeve or they’ll soon get wise to you. Here are a few ideas to get your house looking less like a bomb site.
• Job jar: List tasks on a piece of paper, e.g. vacuuming the living room, emptying the rubbish, putting away clean clothes. Your child takes as many or as few as he wants. When the job’s done you sign the slip. At the end of the week or month, you pay a set amount for each task completed.
• Musical tidying up: Play their favourite music for a set amount of time – whoever’s done the most tidying at the end gets a reward.
• Artistic licence: Buy clear plastic bins for toy storage and let your kids decorate them, ideally with a picture that represents what goes in each box, eg, a teddy for cuddly toys. The kids will be happy to use something they have ‘made’ and their friends can easily help too.
• Target practice: Put the toy box in the middle of the room and see who can score the most direct hits. (Non-breakable only!) Great fun and good for hand-eye co-ordination.
• Beat the clock: Set a timer and see how many toys go in the box before time is up. Rewards are optional.
• Time it right: Five minutes before ‘The Simpsons’ always works in our house – the thought of missing Bart’s lines is just too much to bear, so tidying is swift and sweet.