Making Katie take a turn.

We are having the whole family here for Thanksgiving and need the kids’ rooms for guests, which means Katie’s room needed SERIOUS attention. Like more than just being cleaned up…because it smelled. So once it was picked up and cleaned out, we cleaned the carpets. I made her take a turn so she learns how much work it is and will hopefully (?) try to keep it clean. (Yeah I’m not holding my breath.) She was less than thrilled.

Katie’s room cleanout saga

So I forgot to mention…Katie’s room got fully cleaned out about a week ago.

We had given her chance after chance (after chance) to get it picked up even a little. No it didn’t have to be perfect…but I couldn’t even make it to her bed without stepping on who knows what so I was just D.O.N.E. done. We finally gave her the final ultimatum on a Friday night. We reminded her multiple times throughout the weekend. Reminded her she was going to lose everything if she didn’t make a dent.

She kept putting it off and putting it off. So Sunday afternoon I gave her one last chance. And when she decided that continuing to lay on the basement couch and do nothing was her best choice…it was time. I grabbed the roll of garbage bags and off I went.

There wasn’t much sorting—everything from the tops of her dressers got swept into a bag. Clothes from the floor? In a bag. Toys? Bag. She made it upstairs about three minutes behind me and I already had about two bags full.

She proceeded to sit on her bed and bawl. Not even making any move to, you know, pick anything up or put anything away.

“WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?!” You know why. We’ve asked you to pick up your room for a month now. I reminded you all weekend and you didn’t do anything. We warned you what would happen—and you saw us do this to Owen’s room so you knew we were serious. This is happening because you made bad decisions.

Tom had been napping but all the drama woke him up, so then he started helping. I think it took us about 45 minutes to get it cleaned out. We did sort some stuff like Legos and took out a full bag of garbage. We found a pile of dishes. Innumerable candy wrappers. Clean clothes mixed with dirty clothes. And under everything? Horrible stains on the carpet that she had NO CLUE what it was from.

So this is about what it looked like when we were done. Bed, dressers, desk, chair, mirror, bookshelf with books, and some toys.

I wanted to take out more but I was mentally and physically exhausted. She was not happy that she lost her nightlight and Alexa. I told her if she had been that worried about it, she should have picked it up.

And then, for as upset as she was, after we were done, she was downstairs laughing and having fun with Owen. Like nothing ever happened.

Fast forward to the next day and I don’t remember exactly what triggered it, but I’m sure it was a combination of her sassy I-can’t-believe-she’s-not-a-teenager mouth and more bad behavior… after I spent the entire day trying to get those unknown stains up and failing…but I went up again and removed even more stuff. She lost the makeup mirror, most of her books, more toys, and anything that was on the floor (you thought she’d have learned that lesson, but no).

In the end, I had taken out about the equivalent of 10 garbage bags. Here it all is stacked in the guest room.

And you know what? She really doesn’t give two craps about any of it. She hasn’t asked for any of it back…except for her Alexa.

She knows why she lost it. She knows she has to earn it back.

I have made her do all the laundry we pulled out—but it all goes back in the guest room (she was allowed to pick two pieces per load to keep).

We’ve told her she can earn some other things back but she hasn’t even cared enough to attempt that. This includes Christmas presents she just got!

Of course her job is to keep her room picked up now—which shouldn’t be hard because it’s literally empty, right? Ha. She still manages to have her floor almost covered every day.

So we have no idea what’s going to happen. Do we just really get rid of everything? Make her sort through it? Make her earn stuff back?

Sigh.

This basement makes me want to scream.

They’re cleaning right now…but please tell me we’re not alone.

Also? They cleaned for a whopping two minutes before they started playing with the toys. WHAT DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND ABOUT CLEANING UP? Yet if I stand there and micromanage they throw a fit.

Honestly, the only rule they really have is that I need to be able to walk to the pantry and the cat room without tripping on anything. If they would just keep those pathways cleared I would be much more lenient. But they don’t. So then I have to let loose on everything else.

P.S. Granted it was over a week, but it’s what happens when they NEVER put anything away when you’re done with it and Mom isn’t standing over them nagging.

This is not where that should go.

This is the stuff about parenting no one warns you about that makes me insane. Owen seems to think that’s how you throw away a rollerblade box. In the bathroom, not broken down, on top of the basket. With all the other bathroom garbage on the floor surrounding it. 🤬

Yes I guess it’s still in the garbage. But we’ve been trying to work with him on doing the right thing the first time…and this is not that.

Room cleaning drama, day 2.

Today started rough but in the end, I think we all got on the same page.

So they knew that today they were going to have to continue and I was going to ask them again to make their bed and put everything left on the floor on their bed.

So I literally stood outside in the hallway between their two bedrooms to keep prodding them.

When I say put everything from the floor on the bed, I mean it. Don’t put anything away. Don’t play with anything. Don’t try to leave the room. Literally put every piece of everything from the floor onto the bed.

Okay, now… Katie, pull out all the Barbies. No not the clothes. No not the Legos. The Barbies. Not the garbage. No! Not the stuffed animals. The Barbies. Okay, now the clothes and just the clothes. No not the Legos. One thing at a time. One thing. Clothes.

Owen, you pick out socks and underwear. Just socks and underwear. No! Don’t put them away. Get all of them first. You dropped one, pick it up. I see more socks. Dig through everything on the bed.

Katie, are you done? Now do stuffed animals. Good. Now crayons and pencils. Put them in your art basket. No, don’t do Legos. Just pencils. Don’t touch anything else.

Owen, now do Pokémon cards. Move stuff around and find them all. No don’t set them there. Put. Them. Away. You have a Pokémon card box. Use it.

Katie! Just crayons and pencils. In the art box, not on your bedside table…

Left, right, left, right, left right. The ping pong match from hell. An hour later it was passable.

We were up there so long Maggie even joined us…and napped!

Their reward for keeping their rooms clean? The Amazon dots they’ve spied in my room. Their rooms get too messy? Unplugged and removed. Easy.

Wish us all luck.

Room cleaning drama, day 1!

Unfortunately it was back to normal life post-vacation so it was time for the kids to clean their rooms. So I told them they had to clean their rooms. Multiple times. They couldn’t concentrate for more than a few minutes before stopping to play or getting otherwise sidetracked. I started to lose my mind.

👩🏻 You guys have to clean your rooms.
👫 …

An hour later.

👩🏻 You guys have to clean your rooms and Katie remember you wanted to finish your library reading to earn the prize.
👫 …

An hour later.

👩🏻 You guys need to finish your rooms. Katie you have to read that book.
👫…

Katie: Can I have a snack?
Owen: Can we go to the pool?
Katie: Can I go to Sophia’s?
Owen: Can we have the dots in our rooms?
👩🏻: 😳🤯🤬 You do understand that I’ve been asking you to do the same thing all day right? And you haven’t done any of it yet?

Katie reads for 5 minutes and Owen reads for 10. They go back to playing.

👩🏻 Hey guys, take a quick sweep around and pick up everything that’s yours and put it away.
👫 (They pick up one or two things and go back to playing.)

Lather, rinse, repeat three times. I warn them that the garbage will be the next stop. This is NOT a new thing.

Guess all the shit I threw away? Shoes, notebooks with drawings, water balloons, Legos, stuffed animals, beads, figurines…

I’m currently waiting for hell to break out when they discover it.