Originally Posted by kiddosnme:
OH MY!!! I am so happy I found this forum!!!! My question for the day, and the reason I found this forum while googling my problem is what do you do when you have children in your care that refuse to pick up after themselves? I have two particular children one being 5 and the other being almost 3. neither will pick up, no matter what, they walk around and watch everyone else, trying to look like they are helping. It makes me want to scream, especially the 5 year old who goes to school and should know better. He claims he does not have to clean up at home, which I know to be true. I have discussed it with his dad and he pretty much shrugged it off, I guess he thinks this is my job, so I should do it. This same child also is a wanderer, we do not have a fenced in yard and I watch them like a hawk when they are outside, he usually is allowed to play out with out supervision. Where we live this is just not possible, I feel like a 5 year old still needs to be watched outside especially since we live in a pretty populated area. He told me yesterday that he hates it at my house. Well no wonder, when you get to do whatever you want at yours unsupervised. So my question I guess is what to do when he blatently ignores my requests to clean up, and should I be holding the 3 year olds to the same clean up standards as the 5 and up children? What do you expect during clean up time? I do have a shelving unit with different bins, everything is clearly labeled (even for the little ones) and every bin has a lid. Organization is not a problem.
I say let the other kids sit and watch THEM clean up one day! Or tell them they are not allowed to play with toys since they choose not to clean up. I have a few like this too, but they are younger and as long as I stay on top of them.