Okay, why do we clean!?!

[Reneemomto5]

I love my son don't get me wrong, he is the sweetest little guy, age 3. And I love doing things with him, like showing him how to do load washing machine and dryer, how to scrub the floors, how to bake brownies, cookies and cakes, how to pour his drinks and put food on his plate. But some days ahhh, its just one mess after another, anyone else?

I know the importance of teaching and guiding- just somedays I feel like I need reminding why do I clean sometimes, it just gets dirty in the next 2 minutes, or at least if feels that way.

Today he fills up his koolaid, I ask "not so high please. " He replies "its okay mommy I can do it" ten seconds later, its on the floor, and now that floor is so sticky, can't find anything but chlorox cleanup to take the sticky off of the floor. " Open this popcicle please mommy," I reply "sure" and as I open the popcicle he spills the brownie mix. Or he says, "I can help scrub the floor too mommy," I reply "sure" as he has somehow is able soak his socks and shoes.

Oh these years are ever so precious aren't they :lol:
This post was just for fun, I'm really not asking why I clean :lol:

What are your favorite "big helper" moments

I remember those days :) Now Angela's thing is wanting to bring everyone their drinks..Sloshing all the way! If you enjoyed what was in your cup, surely you'll enjoy walking barefoot down the hallway :lol:

[Beck]

Riley sees me sweep and mop the kitchen, so we'll catch her in the kitchen every now and then with the mop or broom out, trying to help. :lol: She also is a BIG helper when it comes time to throwing things away.

[Gracie]

I remember those days :) Now Angela's thing is wanting to bring everyone their drinks..Sloshing all the way! If you enjoyed what was in your cup, surely you'll enjoy walking barefoot down the hallway :lol:
thats hilarious [rotfl]

my favorite moment is when DD sweeps the floor and knocks everything off the counters and knocks us in the head lol. She likes to throw trash away so if you leave any bills or papers out she'll toss those too.

[KansasMom]

Oh, I definately get the throwing things away help! Abigail is also really big into putting things in the sink...not just dishes but anything she thinks needs to be cleaned...even clothes!

She also is a BIG help with feeding Nathan...sometimes a little too helpful...but other times really truly helpful. She can hold his bottle really well which frees me up to do something else for two minutes until she is tired of that!

I feel the why do we clean thing most days but it is so awesome when I walk into the living room and hear Abigail singing our clean up song and picking up her toys without me asking! :o

Melanie

Mine tend to want to help during the cooking / baking and while sometimes I specifically set aside a day where they can contribute to baking some fun themed "cup cakes" sometimes I just want them to go off and play because it would be so much easier, so much less mess and take me HALF the time to just do it myself LOL. By the time we are done the floor is covered with patches of flour, DD and DS have transferred mix with their hands onto other surfaces in the kitchen LOL.

Then it struck me, there is so little time in life where my kids are actually going to WANT to do things with me! Give or take 10 years, then they will not wanting to be hang around me at all!

I can truly say though, I don't KNOW why we bother cleaning. I was lamenting this to DH this morning. I swept the floor right before his very eyes and then 10 mins later dry grass has been walked into the house then DH gave the twins packets of crisps so there was now crisp crumbs. I said "WHY DO I BOTHER".

Then he started laughing at me as I was rampaging around the bedroom saying "LOOK AT THIS ROOM! There is fluff everyhwere, I vac and the fluff comes back" - I knew he was finding this funny, so I threw myself on the couch and yelled out "Why don't I just stop breathing" to make him laugh even more and he did. (He knew I was doing it to be stupid and make him laugh)
The teasing didn't stop there and it was quite funny.

Before he went to work DH acknowledged that I DO TRY and he knows that and that was all I needed to hear.

Don't worry when the kids have all grown and gone I bet we will be longing to see one stray little shoe left around the place, or even a tiny trail of biscuit crumbs, or a greasy hand print on the TV.

[chorevacuum]

xo Aussie Mum

[Gracie]

I agree AussieMom...ever notice how clean and organized elderly peoples homes are?? They have so much time on their hands after their kids leave.

[e&m'sirishmum]

Ethan went through a phase just after Micah was born where he would help me by putting Micah's old diaper in the trash after I would change him. The funny thing is I would be sitting in the living room and I would tell Ethan to put the dirty diaper in the trash can in the bathroom, so off he would go with the diaper and all of a sudden I would hear a flush :shock: I was thinking oh no, so the next time around, I listened and actually what he would do is, he threw the diaper in the trash can and then flush the toliet [rofllol]
What a great little helper :)

[mommyto3]

Graycie (12/14/2004) who is 18 months loves to through out everything. she will even through out canned food from the cupboard, and small toys (ie little people). it has gotten so bad that we had to put a lock on the garbage can. [/b]

[Gracie]

Those stories are both hilarious lol ... oh man, they sure do love throwing things away. I give my DD hand wipes or diapers wipes and she "goes to town" wipping every surface down..it's nice because she actually gets a lot of work done LOL. It's so precious to watch them mimic us.

[Reneemomto5]

What big helpers we all have. :lol:

My 16 month old just recently started to find the trashcan, oh boy I forgot how tricky and fast they are. We looked through more trash bags through the years for lost toys and papers.