Messy kids, help!!

Jazzieboy

Hi
My teen will iron for cash, but tidy his room.... no chance !. So I shut the door and bizarrely it annoyed him first. He couldnt find favourite things and his models became dusty. I still refuse to go in unless all surfaces clear (ish) and washing is in the linen bin !!.

gravitytolls

Teenagers are lazy, and getting stressed won't make a jot of difference. Bribery works so far, but only when they've got plans.

It's more a question of using tricks an dstrategies. Make sure they have places for things, i.e
boxes for make up, hair bands, cd's etc. Shelves for books and stuff.

Then at teh end of each day remember to say ' could you take your dirties to teh laundry basket, and tidy away your things before bed please.'

Check they've done it before you go to bed, if they haven't remind 'em, and stand over them while they do it. They'll soon get into the habit.

Remind 'emevery morning to bring down their washing up too!

Dirty little devils.

henhog

Have you watched Desperate Housewives? Be very suspicious if your teenager suddenly wants to start tidying his room, going to church etc....

bargainaddict

Hi, know just where you're coming from Curvycarol. I got 3 of the darlings. Their rooms were getting so bad I wondered what else was living in there! They didn't know where to start so I went in with them and we had 3 boxes, one for rubbish, one to keep and one for boot fair. We told them they could keep the money for everything they sold and this was all the incentive they needed. Every year they have a big clearout now at their school boot fair in November. This clears their room in time for Christmas and gives them some extra money. Every so often I blitz their rooms and they usually manage to keep them tidy after that for a while. The eldest even paid his sister to clean his room last month!!! We just decorated the girls room and they got new bedding a a fluffy rug, and they have kept the room lovely so far. GOOD LUCK

Bendybops19

I have to say...in my experience (from being the messy child!!) it just makes the child annoyed and aggitated if u nag them too much, esp if u stand over them while they do it!

What worked best for me was, my mum would give a time limit in which i HAD to have my room tidy, if i didnt get it done then i wouldnt be allowed to go out.
She'd sometimes buy little bits for my room (not expensive) and say i could have them if my room was tidy, it always made me want to clean my room so the new bits would look nice!

Please dont despair, an untidy room isnt the end of the world!! Just start with small things, ask them to bring all the cups/plates to the kitchen, then in a few days ask for all dirty washing to be put in laundry bin. It'll soon start looking a bit more liveable!!

nearlyrich

I just keep out unless we run out of cups, glasses etc or there is an offensive smell coming out onto the landing !

I have a zero tolerance policy for their "stuff" in the rest of the house and they are the only one's it affects if their rooms are a mess.

Having said that I have seen worse and they weren't all teenagers " How clean is your house" anyone?:eek:

Faith_2

nearlyrich wrote:

I just keep out unless we run out of cups, glasses etc or there is an offensive smell coming out onto the landing !

I have a zero tolerance policy for their "stuff" in the rest of the house and they are the only one's it affects if their rooms are a mess.

Having said that I have seen worse and they weren't all teenagers " How clean is your house" anyone?:eek:

I have the same attitude with mine. It's her room. I close the door. As long as I get back my cups and glasses and she puts her dirty washing in the laundry basket... I only nag her about cleaning her hamster's cage - for obvious reasons (the hamster's health ).

My view is: relationships with a (pre - 12.5 yo) teenage girl can be tense enough at times - some things are worse arguing about, some are not!

nearlyrich

My sentiments exactly "pick your battles" is a good strategy with teenagers, if they don't put their washing in the basket it doesn't get washed, if they don't collect their clean washing from the utility room it stays there.

BWZN93

Maybe take them to ikea and give them £20 each - they can buy whatever they want for their rooms, the theory being that they might take pride in their rooms a bit more if they felt they could personalise it more.

My sister was exceptionally messy during her teens, until mum gave her a budget to go and do her room. She bought paints, bedcovers, storage, everything, and ever since then it stayed really neat.

I was also really messy when I was younger until I went out and bought loads of stuff for my room, wallpapers, shelves, the lot. I did it all myself, and funnily enough, the room stayed a lot cleaner....

Failing that, shut the door on the room and if their stuff is all over the house, box it up, and dump it just inside their door. I figure its being told to clean when you dont particularly want to for most teenagers - like on a saturday morning at 11am when all they want to do is go out or something!

JO xx

schoolfundraiser

The school holidays are coming so hopefully I will be able to see the floor in my daughter's room soon. I stand a chance of converting her to tidiness but my husband is a lost cause. Any brilliant ideas anyone?