5 Tips on How to Teach Your Child How to Tidy His Room

"Clean your room!", "Put your hand on and pack your things downstairs!" a stable! " - harsh remarks that children often hear from their parents when toys, clothes, and other things are scattered throughout the room.

Keeping clean is one of the main sources of conflict between parents and children of all ages and is a seemingly inevitable struggle. But these acid reproaches are nothing more than an emotional abuse of the child, who reacts contrary to the expectations of adults. I will give you some tips on how to motivate your child to keep the room clean, avoiding quarrels.

Until then, let's look at both perspectives.

Parents' perspective: It's important to keep a clean room. It is not healthy to live in dirt, dust, dirty clothes, spoiled food, etc. For emotional balance, it is very necessary to have a sense of peace and security in the space where you live.

This becomes more pressing in the family where several siblings or family members share the same room.

Child's perspective: the room is my territory! It is a place of intimacy, where I relax, feel free, and can exercise a little control. When I'm in my room, the last thing I think about is the cleanliness.

So you see, parents and children have different perspectives. No wonder in many families keeping a clean room becomes a cause for war. To help you avoid such a conflict, here are five tips on how to get your child to tidy up their room.

Discuss and establish a clear system of the organization together.

Children often feel overwhelmed and disoriented by the idea of ​​tidying up a messy room. Determine what items are in the room (books, toys, clothes, toiletries, etc.) and create a place, clearly labeled, for each type of item.

The easiest way is to find large cabinets or boxes/drawers so that they are fewer and easier to identify. Decorate them with stickers that indicate what should be in the given box/cupboard. It's a lot of fun, and children may even enjoy making decisions about decorating or labeling it.

Do the first cleaning together.

Show the child a way to organize: how to wipe the dust, how to put things in place, where to take the garbage or dirty clothes. You can make a game out of it or a competition. For example, you will collect the green toys and the child the pink ones. If children are under 4 years old, make sure you give clear specific instructions. For example, tell them to take their coloring materials from the floor and table and put them in the art box.

Set daily tasks.

Ask him to put the dirty clothes in the trash every day and make sure that the rubbish has been thrown away and that the toys have been put back in place. You can choose one day a week for general cleaning. Listen to the child's suggestions. Let him believe that the initiative and the ideas belong to him.

Praise him even for the little things he does to keep the room clean.

The child will feel encouraged and motivated to keep a healthy atmosphere in the room.

Create a reward system.

You can make a reward table to put on the fridge or front door. If there are more brothers, it will become a real competition between them, and cleanliness will turn into fun.

Under no circumstances should you reward him with money, sweets, or permission to play computer games for hours. Also, don't turn the reward into a "bribe." So, we will tell him: "Because you have tidied up the room, I allow you to ride a bike." But by no means do we want to convey that we recommend for the mother to be inactive. Conditioning rewards could be perceived as blackmail and you risk the little one answering you with the same coin.

Even if you feel that this should always be done and not necessarily rewarded, you can save yourself a lot of trouble by acknowledging that your little one has worked hard to keep his or her space clean. Points can be turned into rewards by diversifying the weekend program or letting them choose a family activity.

Most of the time, parents do not have the patience and time to apply all these tricks. It's okay if you don't always manage to hold the child accountable. At first, it will be a little harder, but later this process will become a habit for the child. That way, in the long run, your work will be rewarded.