Do you make your children clean their rooms?

[mommy259]

This is more about pre teens and teens then younger kids....

Do make your kids clean their rooms? How often do they have to? Do you allow your children to live in a messy room?

My oldest always gives me a hard time about cleaning his room, I am starting to wonder if i should just allow him to live in a messy room and make him keep his door shut and tell him as long as it is a mess he can't have anyone over in his room.

***EDIT***My kids have had to clean their own rooms every night before bed since they were 2, but now that my oldest is 12.5 he likes to give me a hard time.

[mybabyapples]

My 4 y/o has to. If she doesn't she looses a privledge.

[DanaG70]

 Yes she does, she only has to do it once a week, but she does it. She's 15.....

When my boys lived with us, they had to clean their rooms too.

[Knightquester]

Yes I make them clean their room or they don't get to do anything fun which includes interacting with friends, watching any television, playing any games, getting on the computer... basically anything.  On the rare occasion when their room has gotten so bad that I had to make them start cleaning after lunch on a weekend day and require it to be clean before dinner, if it wasn't done then no dinner for them thankfully they've always gotten it done, not that I'd have a problem sending them to bed for not listening.

I started making my children pick up after themselves when they were toddlers but let's face it even us adults lack the desire to keep on things we need to.  Once a child hits the pre-teen (that's where most of mine are) and teen years it's even more difficult I think because they are trying to test their parents limits.  I don't know if I'd let them get by with a huge mess mostly because bacteria, germs and things can start to procreate in a really dirty room.  I would just not let them have anything until their room is clean, they want something then they will give something and in life that is really how it works.  Hang in there and don't be afraid to be a mean mom, it's better then finding several snake skins under their beds months later (don't ask, needless to say it's a very good idea to make your kids clean their rooms, lol).

[olvera925]

Yes I do.

[melissa916]

I try to make mine.
My six year old is better at it.
My 13 year old is ridiculous about it! That kid will shove garbage under his mattress!! It got so bad with stuff being shoved under the bed, that we put his mattress on the floor! I know it looks bad, but it prevents the fight. I've been on him daily now because if I let it go more than two or three days, it looks like a tornado hit it. I still dust and vacuum for him and do his laundry. I can't make him put it away because he will just throw it on the floor. I've learned to pick my battles with him. I find that as long as I make him do it daily, it's not so bad.

I feel your pain, pre teens and teenagers are so difficult. I'm in my early thirties and I'm already getting gray hair :/

[crissysworld]

Yes and if not I tell him I will take a garbage bag in there and if it looks like trash to me its gone.

[mom2MDS]

 Yes, they have to have things picked up and put away every night before bed and then every Saturday they get up and have to vacuum an dust their rooms.

[faeriemom1972]

Nope, it's their space. No food allowed is the only rule. They do have to pick up their stuff in the family room though.

[Country_Momma89]

I try with my 2 and 3 year old but it doesn't go over too well lol.

[Lorelai_Nicole]

Yep. All three of my non-newborns (lol, I have 3-week-old twins) have to clean their rooms once a week. The deadline is Friday at bedtime. They usually stay clean through the weekend and then gradually get messy throughout the week. They're never filthy though. Mostly just cluttered.