Tuesday, March 30, 2010

cleaning with the boys

i love to clean. especially when i have the house to myself. when i get to listen to something besides"kids fun 123" or disney music. (although i really do love disney music) when something i clean stays clean. i love the smell of a clean lemon fresh house. love it. my boys however do not. this has been a battle ever since drew was introduced to toys with a million little pieces. i have tried everything to try to get him to clean up. races. i always end up winning. weird. "the gobble monster" resulted in a terrified 3 year old who would not be left alone because a monster was coming in our house to eat his toys. (thanks mom!) threats. many many threats. the only thing that got me was a very upset little boy and an even more upset mommy. some of my ideas i thought were great. others i hope he never remembers and that i'll soon forget. but i found one that works. and it's genius. (yes, my head has gotten very big)

so the other day as i was going about my morning routine, i passed drew's room with toys everywhere. i called for drew to come and clean up. i got the usual response. out of nowhere it came to me.
"ok just clean up the toys you want to keep! "
drew comes running in. "mommy i want to keep ALL my toys!"
"ok well then just put away the ones you're keeping."
"ok mommy."
wait. what? within minutes his room was spotless. not a toy in sight. we haven't had a problem since.
and i fall asleep smiling. at last, i have out smarted a 4 year old.

5 comments:

Michelle said...

You are hilarious! I did the same thing with my girls. I told them that they needed to come pick up the toys they wanted and the rest I would put in the garbage...they always clean up real quick especially after I did throw a few things away and they realized I was serious!!

Thanks for the funny post!
Love ya!

Rob and Mare said...

Drew is pretty smart. Way to outsmart him! I wonder how all your tricks will work on Indy.... hmmm good luck!

Luke and Erin said...

HAHA! for now...

Discovery Preschool said...

im going to try this on jake! do you think it will worK?

becky rigby said...

You may just be the smartest mom alive! I'm glad you have a blog too. Now you can find mine. =) I'll post our hiking pictures soon.