might beat my kid (not really)

[Pegster710]

Yup, that's true. Funny thing is, some time around 20 - 22 they suddenly discover that we aren't as stupid as they thought! And we discover with some shock that they have grown up to be pretty nice people!

How true! My son will be 23 in June and still lives at home. He has really changed a lot - especially lately.

I find ~ even at my age ~ that I have a deep appreciation for what my parents went through. I was definitely the "black sheep" of my family! I do daily "penance" even now, trying to make up for some of the heartache I caused. The bonus is I've gotten to know my parents very well and have so much love for them, I can't even express it with mere words...

 

[Pegster710]

For my 15 yo, I was having difficulty having her keep her room neat. One day we were in Target and she showed me things she would like in her room. I made a compromise with her and told her for every week that she kept her room neat, I would purchase one item of things she would like for her room. She now has everything she wanted and room is always neat....she might let go for a day or two, but all-in-all, she makes her bed everyday and stays in her room enjoying the new scenery.

Great idea! I'd be willing to give this one a shot! Beats black/deep purple walls!

 

[hereforgood]

The covering it up is the arguement I use! I can't imagine how long ~ and how much paint ~ it would take to cover up that one wall! :

Kilz primer worked when I covered up dark blue walls with glitter on top.

 

[Railroad]

No, she's not into Goth. She saw it on that makeover show, Trading Spaces. The room had three light walls and one dark one... It looked great on TV.

The covering it up is the arguement I use! I can't imagine how long ~ and how much paint ~ it would take to cover up that one wall! And I really don't want to find out!!

We watch Trading Spaces a lot, too! Thank God we don't have a 5-year-old watching it with us.

 

[Railroad]

How true! My son will be 23 in June and still lives at home. He has really changed a lot - especially lately.

I find ~ even at my age ~ that I have a deep appreciation for what my parents went through. I was definitely the "black sheep" of my family! I do daily "penance" even now, trying to make up for some of the heartache I caused. The bonus is I've gotten to know my parents very well and have so much love for them, I can't even express it with mere words...

Awww - how sweet!

 

[Railroad]

Kilz primer worked when I covered up dark blue walls with glitter on top.

We used it, too. It works great for covering stains and stuff permanently. Funny thing is, we had a pale green bathroom, and the Kilz seemed to cover it; we put on a top coat of white. Now we have a very very very pale green bathroom.

 

[vraiblonde]

Surprise! I have nothing to add except:

I always just made her think I threw it away. I'd bag it up and put it away for six months. By the time I put the stuff back in the toy boxes, the lesson had been learned.

As mine got older, the clean room was such a small piece of the big picture that I would just close the door to their rooms. As long as there were not health or safety issues, I could ignore the mess.

Maybe I should let her go for it...

Kilz primer

 

[mrweb]

As mine got older, the clean room was such a small piece of the big picture that I would just close the door to their rooms. As long as there were not health or safety issues, I could ignore the mess.

Of course, they could not have friends in their rooms if it was not up to my minimum standards. And I always hung that over their heads, too, when they got a last minute invitation to go somewhere. After a few times of turning down invitations because they had to clean their rooms, they kept up with it a little better.

The one other thing that helped was letting my kids help renovate/redecorate their rooms. They felt some ownership then and wanted to keep it looking nice.

I tried just about everything reasonably mentioned in this thread. As mine got older and moved up through High School, a messy room was truely a minor thing and something certainly not worth having a fight over. After HS, things started to improve with the mess. One thing that did help, from about 12 or 13 on, I made them do their own laundry. After a while, they got tired of either not having anything to wear or looking like a prune. Eventually they started actually folding and/or hanging their clothes up.

 

[Pete]

I had to take a break or I might scream! My 5 year old child's room is a mess(neighborhood kids played then left yesterday)! I told her I would help her clean her room, ie.. you hand me all your horses, barbies shoes, etc... and I will put them up. She could clean it by herself, but I felt since all the kids left her with the mess (we won't talk about that) I would help. I have bins set up for everything, that way it is easy to find, clean etc... All she has to do is hand me things, and put away the big stuff. After 20 minutes of asking her for say barbie clothes she is still just argggggggggggggg. I told her I would throw out anything left on her floor that I had ALREADY asked her for. Now I have a trash bag full of stuff for goodwill. And she still is not getting the point. Give me the strength-

Do it. It is a cruel world and the sooner you indoctrinate them that the world will not kiss their ass the better

 

[Pegster710]

Surprise! I have nothing to add except:

Well, alrighty, then! Thanks, vrai!!

 

[Pegster710]

Do it. It is a cruel world and the sooner you indoctrinate them that the world will not kiss their ass the better

Let 'em know early that they'll have to do most of the butt~kissing for a while!

 

[Katie]

I told pegster what my mom did when I was a teenager. She took a picture of my room when it was extremely mess, and showed it to all MY friends. I was mortified.