amandasgramma

I had a daughter that no matter how I tried or what I tried would NOT clean up her room. My grandmother wisely said to me one day "one of these days she'll leave home and the house will be empty but it WILL be clean". I took her word of advise, and just shut the door. I did warn her that if anything crawled out of the room, or I smelled anything bad, I would haul everything including HER to the dump. Well, today her room in this house is NOT clean ----it's full of quilting stuff....but her room in HER home is spotless! She's the best housekeeper in the whole family!!! Go figure ROL

SundarKoyal

Wow, reading this thread is like reading a war story. lol. I guess i cannot relate to what all of you have gone through. My son (who is now almost 25) never went through the teenaged years. Well, not like the stories i have heard from other parents. My son was always responsible since he was a tiny child. Always considerate and loving. Never any bad attitude either.

I was so blessed when i had him, that i never had any more children. I was too scared to take a chance that the second child would be a hell-raiser. It was like all of the world's good blessings went into my son. He was all i could ever hope to have in a child... I did not need another.

Honey

When my boys were young I use to threaten to through their stuff out the window. One day I got fed up and did it. They were so embarrassed They they kept things picked up after that.

Quiltforme

I want to thank you all so much for your stories. I felt like a bad mom but man you would think that me with a bad back they would help out. I have decided to my oldest is just not ready for the responsibility of working her job and school. Looking back over the last 2 weeks is when she started being lax on her chores and respect for her dad and I. Today really showed it in her attitude. I really so appreicate all of you who made a comment about what happened to you or your family it really does help me. I swear it really does take a village to raise children. It means a lot that you would post to help me. Jade!

Chasing Hawk

When my older kids were able to drive. I bought their first vehicles. The rules were........

Get a ticket, the car was mine.
Get in a wreck, the car was mine after it was fixed.
Let the insurance lapse....the car was mine.
Your grades drop...the car was mine till they improved.

They started doing their own laundry at an early age (around 8).
Their rooms were to be clean, not spotless, but presentable.
Any toys or other things that DID not belong in the other parts of the house, were mine until I said so.

Aunt Retta

I raised foster kids for the state of Arizona. They always encouraged this kind of thing. They just had to have a matress, but it could be on the floor. I did this several times to kids and many times to the young lady I adopted!

SuziC

You GO girl!!!!

brookemarie19

I do the same thing with my kids. When they either don't put something up or don't take care of it properly then I tell them that they must not be responsible enough for it so it is taken away. They do eventually learn and at times you have to give them another lesson, but luckily you don't have to do it too often.

ptquilts

When you insist the teens do their own laundry, what do you do about them running a load with one shirt or one pair of pants in it? Because that's all they need right now and can't plan into the future.
I would make them buy their own detergent as well.

redvette54

What a great group of mothers on this board. All of you are teaching your children to be responsible and respectful. By my own choice, I didn't have children. I now have 3 stepkids, they are all in there 20's now. I have had 2 of them live with us and they both were kicked out for lack of respect for our home. DH's son now has his own place and is very sorry for what he put us thru. DH's daughter is in her own place and working 2 jobs to support her and her son. When the kids were in their late teens and out of control their mother moved 1500 miles away. I guess my point is, teach your kids to be responsible for their actions, like picking up their rooms, before they get out of control and get in real trouble outside of the home. I'm not saying these kids got into trouble because of not having a clean room, but lived with their mother that didn't care (those words come from what the kids have told me). It's been hard for me because I was raised so diffrently