Does anyone else’s kids just leave EVERYTHING lying out around the house?

[humblebird]

My kids are 10 and 12 and they are just making my life so difficult with making a mess round the house. The thing that gets to me most is that the know there is no else to clean it up other than me. I’ve calmly explained that to them.

I will call them back downstairs when they leave a mess and just head up to their rooms. I try to correct it as often as I can but it’s absolutely draining me. It would be easier to just do it myself, and sometimes I have obviously do, because kids are kids, but they literally leave everything with complete disregard for the fact I have to do all the housework single-handedly, and this is making my day to day life, so much more difficult than it needs to be.

Do other peoples children do this? How is best to tackle it, because nothing I try is working! 😢 Or AIBU to expect more from them?

Put it in a bag. Put in shed. Wait for them to wonder where it is.

Come on now. Woman up.

My 2 boys started doing it too. Including leaving their dirty clothes and pants on the bathroom floor after having a shower… when there is a laundry basket IN THE BATHROOM! And they were just leaving stuff everywhere. They went from perfectly neat kids to a mess almost overnight, and at your same ages too - 10 and 12.

I’m a single mum so it’s also only me to tidy up after them. I spent quite a long time with the chats, and calling them back and explaining things and then I had a really awful day and I lost it, I’m ashamed to say. I ended up with an armful of their stuff and shouting that ever single thing they’d dropped on the floor or left on a table was them saying “fuck you mum” and then I dropped each of the things on the floor in front of them one by one angrily asking why that was mine to tidy up, what about this one etc. It was a bad bad day, I apologised to them over and over and we talked it through… but it also worked. They realised the utter disrespect they were giving me, the extra work they were giving me. The extra stress it was causing me. And we got through it. They’re teens now and absolutely pull their weight. Sometimes I have to remind them that they are not “helping,” they’re just “doing” because they live here too and they need to take initiative and just get stuff done. But they’re pretty good on the whole for teenagers.

What does that even mean? She’s asking for parenting advice. This is a parenting site. And you say “woman up?” What does that mean?

Have a set time each day when they tidy up their belongings and pack their school bag for the day after.

Warn them if items are left in silly places they will lose the item until they improve. Dont tidy them away in their rooms. Box then in your room.

When mine was 6 I told them whatever is not put away, I’ll put in a bin bag, throw away and they don’t get replacement. Problem solved; of course occasionally I have to remind them but now they’re 7 and it’s way better than before.

Woman up - means get a grip of this situation. It’s intolerable. I’d definitely pack their stuff into a sack and hide it. Give one warning and then do it if they don’t tidy up satisfactorily. It’s rude and disrespectful. I would stop being calm. Say what you want and mean it. As above: women up.

He did, until I started throwing things away. Now he’s learnt his lesson and is very good at taking things back to his bedroom