She won't clean her room!!!

Your six year old daughter won't clean her room.  She whines and yells that it's too hard! You know she's old enough and capable of doing the job.  You are getting frustrated.  Is this a familiar scenario?  Let's talk about it...

Have you ever looked at a project and thought it was too hard and you didn't know where to start?  What if you had instructions?  What if you had a checklist to walk you through the process?  What if someone showed you how to do it?  Would that make the project less daunting?  Do you see where I'm going with this?  Our children are no different.

Too often we assume our children know how to do something when we haven't really taken the time to teach them just how to do it or what constitutes a finished job.  This applies to most jobs we expect our kids to do...whether it's cleaning their room, doing laundry, vacuuming, washing dishes and so forth. Kids don't automatically know how to do things...just like us!

Going back to your little girl...as Mom, you have several options.  You can help her break the job down into smaller parts.  Maybe you can tell her to put the dirty clothes in the hamper first.  When she's done with that, she can pick up her toys. Next have her fold her clean clothes and put them away.   Then she can straighten her shelves and make her bed.  You could make a little checklist for her and have her check off the steps when she's completed.  You can teach her at a time when neither of you are stressed out or in a hurry.  You'll probably have to work with her for a while until she gets the hang of it.  But she'll learn.

Last but not least, remember that you can't expect what you don't inspect!  So, check her job and give her lots of compliments and praise for a job well done.

An hour later...I forgot something about cleaning rooms!  A room that is too full of clothes and toys is hard for anyone to clean!  Help your child out by streamlining her belongings and making sure there is a place for everything!