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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Refusing To Clean Up
sahm2three 08:52 AM 09-25-2012
I have a little dcb who used to be the BEST cleaner upper. Now, he flat refuses. Today, we are getting ready to paint, and I told him that if he does not clean up, he doesn't get to paint. "I no care" is what I got. So, I no care if he has to be miserable and sit and watch the other kids paint happily. What the heck?!?! UGH
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Happy Hearts 09:00 AM 09-25-2012
Little life lessons now help when big life lessons come along later!
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Willow 09:36 AM 09-25-2012
I am guessing he doesn't care for painting all that much.

Find something that he does love and use that as the currency instead.



I have a just turned three year old who is doing the same thing lately. The farm/tractor bin is his holy grail and is the only thing that can "inspire" him to be good lately
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Lilbutterflie 09:43 AM 09-25-2012
My DS went through a phase of clean-up rebellion. A LONG phase!! I changed the way I do clean up time (read below); and have had zero problems since!

I generally assign each child an area to clean up. Charlie cleans the kitchen stuff, Susie cleans up the baby dolls, etc... That way each child can go at their own pace. They can't move on to the next activity if they don't clean up their assigned space.

The best thing that works for us is praise, praise, praise to the kids that clean up well. And I clean up with them, or help the teeny ones clean up. Since I started doing all of these things; clean up time has been zero issue for anyone here!
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MrsSteinel'sHouse 09:52 AM 09-25-2012
I had this exact thing the other day 3 and 4 yr old played mutiny! They didn't want to clean up.. they wanted to play (not really just didn't want to pick up) I said we are going outside to paint... Big painting with paper taped to the side of the house!!! They could see it through the playroom's sliding glass doors. No we don't want to. So I took the 3 little ones out and they painted. I could watch the 2 in the playroom through the door. OH MY! The fit they pitched! Finished up, came back in. 4 yr old told me I was to take down what they painted and put up new paper for him. I said no and then I looked at them and said do you want to do what is next? No. They didn't. I asked are you sure? Well... so I said pick up and you can do what is next.. no they were not going to pick up. So I took the little ones out to the kitchen to do what was next...Finally right before lunch they picked up so they could do what was next... Lunch! LOL.

I just don't know what is in the air lately...
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nanglgrl 11:38 AM 09-25-2012
I have all new 2 year olds and only a couple of them actually pick up, the rest stare at me blankly but I just keep puttering on. I have most of the toys put up but a little of everything at each center (a few costumes, puppets, blocks, pretend food etc. and I switch them out or add more things if the kids are engrossed in a certain center).
I hate the clean up song with a passion and was really getting sick of saying "clean up" over and over. What I found that has really worked is giving the kids each a small bag and telling them to go around the room and fill it. Then they put the items in their appropriate area when their bags are full (it works the best with blocks and legos). Even the kids who don't seem to understand English join in as they copy the others and fill their bag. We use the reusable bags from Subway kids meals, they work awesome.
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daycare 12:31 PM 09-25-2012
Originally Posted by sahm2three:
I have a little dcb who used to be the BEST cleaner upper. Now, he flat refuses. Today, we are getting ready to paint, and I told him that if he does not clean up, he doesn't get to paint. "I no care" is what I got. So, I no care if he has to be miserable and sit and watch the other kids paint happily. What the heck?!?! UGH
ugh that does stink.... I would be making that the most fun you ever had painting and making sure the kid knew that........... I have one that no matter what you do it will not phase them. I think the child is put in timeout so much at home that they are immune to it.

Here, kids who don't listen don't get to have any fun....Bummer, cuz I love having fun with the kids......
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clep 01:23 PM 09-25-2012
I have a child that started this. I kept his favorite activity on the side waiting for such an occasion. Then when he refused to clean up, I just sat him on the sideline. We left a percentage of toys for him to clean up and started our activity. I went to him in the middle of the activity and asked him if he was ready to clean up. He got up, quickly started to clean up but tried to make out like he didn't know where the toys went. I sat him back down again until he was ready. Went back, he got up, cleaned up very well and joined in on the activity.

We did that a few times. Now I just have to ask him if he wants to clean up now or later. He chooses now, every time.
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grandmom 01:58 PM 09-25-2012
I-no-care would be cleaning up just before lunch. Works every time.
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Chipmunk 09:07 PM 09-25-2012
My own daughters can be a bit of a pill about this. I found long ago that "Who can clean up the FASTEST?!?" works wonders. They work on their own, and together, to get things cleaned up.

I just pull out the vacuum, and they know to get stuff off the floor without even being asked to put toys away.

When I was having a lot of resistance, I realized it was because we didn't have adequate, easy storage for things. Some toys needed to be cycled out so we simply had fewer things to put away, but I also needed different ways to store some things. CHanging the "homes" of some things made clean up a lot easier.
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brightstarts 09:20 PM 09-25-2012
We have a few kids like this. We find that at times, if we make clean up a challenge, it goes much better. For example, I will say, It's time to clean-up, let's see if we can get everything away by the time I count to 10. Than I take my time counting to 10, slowing down as needed, and the kids race to clean up everything. There are days it doesn't work, but it usually does.
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Tags:cleaning up, picking up, refusing to clean up, rules
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