Top 5 Ways to Get Your Kids Involved In Cleaning
This might shock you to hear, but cleaning is awful. While there are people out there who love cleaning, cleaning often seems like just another annoying chore— and that’s just how adults feel. I don’t have kids yet, but I used to be a kindergarten teacher, so I know how hard it can be to convince them to clean. While adults clean because it’s the responsible thing to do, most kids can’t identify with that motivation. At the same time, though, it’s important to teach children good habits from a young age, and that includes cleaning up. So how, then, can we encourage kids to clean without all the fussing and tears? Here are a few tips from both research and my own experience.
#1 : Use Songs or Videos
Though “Baby Shark” might haunt every parent’s nightmares by now, nobody can deny that kids love it. Children of all ages love music, especially repetitive and energetic music or music that reminds them of their favourite characters. So why not use that to your advantage when cleaning? Turn it into a dance party! Crank up the tunes, model a silly “cleaning up” dance, and your kid will be be giggling and dancing along in no time. Not only does it make cleaning fun, you also get to make some nice memories and exercise. If your kid doesn’t feel like cleaning with just music, you can also put on a video to exploit kids’ obsession with screens, something I often had to do when teaching 4 year olds. It’s not ideal, but it gets the job done — if you make sure your kid is actually cleaning and not just zoning out and watching the video, that is.
Here are some of the songs I used when I was a teacher, or you can choose any song your kid likes.
#2 : Play Pretend
Another great way to get younger kids to clean is by playing pretend — not only do they love it, it’s also important for their development as it offers them safe opportunities to solve problems and think creatively. It’s really easy too — just think of you kid’s favourite character or person, and then use that as a theme for your “plot”. If your kid loves superheroes, give them a cleaning robot sidekick or magical dusting wand to help them put the toys that are running amok in Bedroom City in the naughty bin. If your kid likes to pretend they’re an office worker like you, ask them to meet with toy “clients” and figure out if they need speak to the bedroom’s train track department or the lego bin offices- the possibilities are endless. My students loved pretending that they were a family putting their toy “babies” to bed. Just treat it as an improv exercise and make sure everyone is having fun — the room will be clean before you know it.
#3 : Make It a Competition
Creating competitions is good for kids to practice their ability to lose gracefully and can help teach them that it’s okay to make mistakes and fail; just make sure that any competitions are age-appropriate to avoid tantrums. For younger kids, it might be best to compete against adults or a pretend “toy bandit” rather than each other— the exception being team competitions, which worked worked in my kindergarten as students didn’t lose “alone”. Winners can be determined by speed or by number of items cleaned up, though if you try to have your kids “beat the clock” and clean really fast, make sure they can see the timer as they might not have a good sense of time.
The most fun part of competitions, though, is the prize! You can choose to have an immediate reward, like some candy or extra TV time, or you can choose to use a points system to let kids save up for bigger prizes over time. Better yet, negotiate what the prize will be to give you kid a chance to test their presuasion skills.
#4 : Make It Seem Grownup
When I was a kid, I was known for shouting “I big girl! I do it myself!”. Kids can start wanting to be independent or “adult-like” from a young age, but it becomes especially apparent around the ages of 8 to 12 when kids distance themselves from their parents and want to be more independent. While it’s great to see kids growing up, their increased need for independence can make cleaning a nightmare if they don’t want to be told what to do. A good work-around, then, is to make cleaning seem independent and “grown up”. When I was babysitting a 12 year old, I found that hinting that the kid’s idols always keep their room clean and talking about how having a clean room is a good hideout away from adults’ prying eyes was pretty effective. In truth, though, this strategy can be hard to implement successfully, so don’t feel discouraged if it doesn’t work, just try another approach.
#5 : The Household Economy
Always save the best for last. This is what my parents used for most of my childhood — making chores become “household jobs”. There are two main ways this can be done: giving your child a flat fee for completing a set list of chores every week or having a list of chores your kid can choose from, each of which are assigned a certain value. Your kids can earn money for these chores or you can use the rewards I mentioned above for cleaning competitions. I prefer using actual money, though, because it teaches kids about financial responsibility. Also, it’s another good chance for your kid to practice negotiating and persuading if you let them haggle for higher prices. The downside to this method is that it doesn’t teach kids to really enjoy cleaning, but still, by the time kids leave the house they will at least know how to clean and will likely have developed a long-term cleaning habit.
Which of these cleaning methods would be best suited to your kid? Do you have any interesting ways to get your kids involved in cleaning? Do you have any ways you would improve my suggestions? Leave a comment and let me know!
Also, if you’re interested in more content about cleaning, technology, and life in general, feel free to check out the rest of my blog. Thanks for reading!
