Chores

Jadzia is almost 4 and a half now and she's generally very helpful. Until recently, she didn't have specific chores but I'd ask her to do things to help me and because she liked doing it. She also went through a phase where she'd insist on doing things so as long as she was capable, who was I to argue. Her one chore now is to clean up the playroom before bedtime. The first week or so, I stayed in the room with her, pointing out things that needed to be done and trying to get Inara to help out as well. She was quick and seemed to enjoy it then. Then I started just telling her it was almost time for bed so she needed to clean up. After she said she was done, I'd go in to "inspect" and point out the things that needed to be finished up. At that time, she usually got about 80% of it without instruction from me. Another week passes and she's started to slip, she was taking longer and not really getting much clean at all until I came in and drill sgted her butt into gear. So I went back to hovering and supervising. After she was done, we'd talk about everything she'd cleaned up and I'd remind her what the tasks were (pick up movies, straighten books, put away toys, etc). It seemed to be drilled into her head...

Then last week, I gave her the bedtime warning about 20-30 minutes before bed and she started cleaning. Except she brought me half the toys to show me, or she sat and fiddled with the toys, or she flipped through the books. An hour and a half later, after sending her back to clean up countless times and having to point out all the things she'd missed when she said she was done, I finally put them to bed frustrated beyond belief.

Now I know that toys are appealing and all, but she's had these toys for ages, they're always there so it's not like they're new to her! Same with the books! Tonight almost started out like one of those nights - she was doing really well at first and then I started hearing her play more than clean so I went in to watch. Me standing there made her get going again. It still took her 30 minutes to get the playroom to about 60% clean and another 15 minutes with me pointing out a dozen or so toys while trying to bounce a tired Anya on my knee.

The only reason I implemented this one chore is because I was tired of 1) toys being spread from the playroom to the living room when they went to bed, 2) Bluto chewing up most wayward toys and 3) having to pick it all up myself. I figured she was old enough to learn to clean up her own toys. And she is - the problem is the focus. She seems to get distracted easily some nights.