cleaning

ChickenMomma91

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Does anyone else have trouble getting their kids to actually clean something?!
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This is what my 13-yr old stepson called a clean sink. He got the counter area ok but that bowl was disgusting! He was in that bathroom no more than 20 minutes ‘cleaning’ the sink and tub for me due to needing to avoid cleaning chemicals till around June. I made him reclean both of them because the tub wasn’t much better and have grounded him from his electronics since he rushed back to his iPhone (deactivated btw, he uses it to watch YouTube all day) so now that he was bored and went to bed at freaking 6:30 I ended up doing what the doctor said not to. I scrubbed my stove earlier and got it looking almost new and then had to turn around and make an example of what clean actually looks like. We only get him on weekends when his mother isn’t being a female dog and this is the first time he’s been home for almost a month. They use him like a Cinderella so you would figure he knows how to clean a bathroom the once in a blue moon that I actually ask him to. Rant over!
 

ChickenMomma91

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Side note. The brat is scrubbing the toilet tomorrow since he was so lazy about the rest. He just doesn’t know it yet.
 

Beekissed

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That's kids for you. Especially male kids...men typically don't see dirt like we see it. My dad was different in that and was more of a stickler for clean than any woman, but most men just don't see dirt.

I once clocked my youngest at doing two sinks full of dishes at 13 hrs to complete the task...and then he had to redo some of them because he didn't get them clean.
 

ChickenMomma91

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That's kids for you. Especially male kids...men typically don't see dirt like we see it. My dad was different in that and was more of a stickler for clean than any woman, but most men just don't see dirt.

I once clocked my youngest at doing two sinks full of dishes at 13 hrs to complete the task...and then he had to redo some of them because he didn't get them clean.
13 hours?! Makes me glad I didn’t ask him to help with dinner dishes geez. I don’t normally ask him to help clean unless I have a huge mountain of laundry and part of it is his. I don’t make him clean up after me like his mother and stepfather. He literally cleans their entire house and takes care of his stepdad’s cat and dog. I understand teaching him responsibility but that sounds like a slave to me. I’ve even heard them say he’s went to bed without supper because he had to finish ‘his’ chores before he could eat. He was too tired to eat and crashed once they deemed his tasks done. He was 8 at the time. As long as his room is picked up and he helps me when I need it I’m fine but knowing he just wanted to get it done and go back to his videos makes me want to set it on fire. I don’t want him to be a sheeple glued to a phone like the rest of the kids in our area. I can hardly get him to go outside as it is. I may have to stash the phone this summer so I actually get help with his sibling which is due in July.
 

Beekissed

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I've found that it's best to have routine chores that they know are their's, no matter what. Like laundry...as soon as my boys were old enough to do their own laundry, they did their own laundry. That helps the house in general.

Then, when no one would claim the pee around the commode, each boy had a week of toilet cleaning duties, alternating weeks. I knew I wasn't peeing around the commode, so why am I cleaning up all this pee? These kinds of chores let them know they are part of the house, they have certain chores to help maintain the house and soon they become part of their routine. It also lessened the amount of free wheeling around the commode...when they have to clean up their own messes, the messes get smaller.

As a single working mom of three boys, there had to be some level of help from them every day, because I'm not a slave either. I live here, they live here, we all live here...so why is only one person cleaning, cooking, etc.?

That's the mindset they need to have....they are part of the house and that comes with certain responsibilities. If these are not done, then TV, whatever they choose to do, is not available until the chores are done.
 

ChickenMomma91

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It doesn’t help that we never know when we’re gonna have him and when we do it’s only for 48 hours. He makes his bed and folds and puts up his own laundry. The only time he forgets to pick up his room is if his mother picks him up early without calling first
 

sumi

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It's awful how they treat that boy :( It's good and necessary that kids help with the household chores, but there should be some limits in place. They are not slaves.

Saying that, seeing that sink like that after it getting "cleaned" would've tipped my lid too. It doesn't take that long to do it and with today's cleaning products, not that much effort either.
 

FarmerJamie

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It's amazing to me some patents don't teach basic life management skills. Divorce and split households don't help.

My ex would always clean up after my son in the kitchen. Finally in his mid teens, she had him use the dish washer. At my place, I made him hand wash a set of cooking stuff three times until it was clean. He griped the whole time that I was too cheap to have a dishwasher.

My youngest daughter (17) doesn't know how to prepare anything other than macaroni and cheese. No baking, nothing. My now wife and I are going to remedy that this year.

The kicker? Outside the home(s), my son is an immaculate cleaner. Go figure
 

Mini Horses

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Then, when no one would claim the pee around the commode, each boy had a week of toilet cleaning duties, alternating weeks. I knew I wasn't peeing around the commode, so why am I cleaning up all this pee?

:thumbsup :lol: :lol:



I live here, they live here, we all live here...so why is only one person cleaning, cooking, etc.?

My son & daughter had "chores" in our house. When son complained that his favorite shirt was dirty, I quickly showed him how to sort, wash, hang out, collect & fold!! He loved to cook & learned to clean up from that nicely, can clean a house well. Good thing!! When divorced and alone it all came in handy. He had learned to grocery shop well and when living away with only himself to PAY for things, became pretty thrifty. :D

Daughter was always less efficient at cooking than him but, she learned to do it nicely after leaving home.
 

ChickenMomma91

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I’ve tried teaching him how to cook but I’m lucky if he hears the timer to pull something out of the oven while I’m in the shower. He got better about helping out this past summer but anytime we get something down once he goes to his mother’s it just disappears ‘I don’t remember how’ is what he always says. Even when I asked him to stir the soup in the crockpot once..... he’s started using it as an excuse but once the baby is here it’s not gonna fly because when I’ve got an arm full of hungry baby in the middle of fixing dinner he’s gonna have to step up if he wants fed too.
 
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