Housecleaning and kids

Maybe just pick up all their mess and dump it on their beds and close the door...I wouldnt wash their clothes either and not do anything for them,just tell them that if they cant help around the house then you cant help them...They are old enough, sounds like pure laziness to me and you are getting used...I would be like you and clean it anyway because I cant stand it, but they might start to notice in a couple of days and hopefully start to pull their weight around the house..

I got more help from my son Josh, when he was a kid, than I did the others. Of course, now that he's grown, I don't get any help at all. lol My daughter used to hate to wash the dishes, and she'd throw a bunch of them away, just to keep from washing them. Basically, it just depends on the kids. Paying them will work on some, but in my son, Jamey's case, he usually wanted paid upfront, and then only did a few, and then disappeared. My son, Elijah was helpful for a short while, and then he stopped helping. Some kids don't seem to care how they live, the messier the better. I really can't help you, nothing really worked for me. lol

I think that you should have a clutter clearing party. I would begin by looking through your teenagers clothes and getting rid of the ones they don't wear. Then do the same with their shoes. Have boxes in the bathroom for each teenager. In these they could keep a tooth brush, tooth paste, a comb, brush, nail scissors, deodrant, shampoo, conditioner and soap. They should each have their own row of books and folders. Saturday should be the day they tidy and clean your house. If during the week they are messy, the things they leave around get thrown away. On Friday evening if the week has been good your teenagers could have a treat.

Give them incentive. My parents always said I had to earn rides places I want to go. I havent got my liscense yet so it always worked.

This sounds pretty drastic but tell them to pick them up or you will put them in the bin and if they dont, start putting them in the bin, of course you would get them out later on and put them away somewhere, but if they think that if they leave their toys on the floor that you will put them in the bin they will start to pick them up! If they do end up in the bin take them away for about a week or so and if they are starting to learn to pick them up then give them back!

I also like to keep a clean house, I feel like filth when I am surrounded by it, what I have done is given my sons more responsibilities around the house in order to be treated more like adults and less like children. I have raised their cerfwe and aloud more adult like activities, movies, TV and such. I told them if they wanted to live like adults then they had to work like them as weel, since that is what we do. I told them they could either get a part time job or do more around the house, so now they have split the chores between the two of them, and have lessend the load on my part, also it has helped to mature them alot faster, they seldom get inot trouble since they are up holding a more adult like lifestyle. I think it works great, I have not had to punish or seriously ground them in nearly three years.

I have two teenager and one soon to be teenager and two little one's and find it amazing that a lot of times the younger children are much easier to get to help out then the teenagers . Not sure if this will help but I know with my teenagers they always want to be gone or out doing something and the only way they are allowed to leave the house is if they took the initiative to clean around the house without having to be asked or told to do something . This doesn't always work especially when they don't have plans to go some place but I try to keep track of what they do and if they didn't help out when they should have then the next time they want to go they are told no because they shouldn't have to be told at their ages to help out around the house as they live her and make the mess as well . I have been trying to show them that if they will just clean their mess up right away then everything doesn't build up and therefore take as long to clean . Although they are getting better I still have to keep after them for the most part . Best of luck !!