One of the greatest frustrations of parents is getting their child to clean up their room. It usually takes a lot of cajoling, convincing and even threatening before a child can be moved into action. I think it is partly the fault of us parents that this is happening. We were remiss in teaching them when they were small. We preferred to pick up after them because we thought that they were small and that they will learn when they got older. Now the damage is done and the job is much more difficult.

Children should be taught to clean after themselves as soon as they can sit up. There are tricks that can be applied, like treating the chore as a game. Give the child points for putting back toys in the toy chest; then give him a reward if he has done a good job. You also need to provide storage for everything. A childrens bookshelf will provide space for books but it can also be a place to keep stuffed toys. Once your child gets the hang of cleaning his room he will do it even if he doesn’t have you by his side,