I have been very frustrated lately about our house. I have almost no desire to clean anymore because of how the "kids" (Nate included) treat the house. 5 seconds after cleaning a room its torn apart again. I only see two solutions.
1. Get rid of all "stuff". I really like this option but doubt that Nate and kids will react very well.
2. Train family to be neater and pick up after themselves. I'm not really sure this one is possible. It sounds like a fairy tale.
In an attempt to share with my girls what it feels like to keep doing an impossible job we did the following activity.
Using these gold coins (not real gold so don't attempt to break in and find them), we played an easy game.
Nate hold the coins and hands them to Kate one at a time. Her only job is to stack them all up. Easy job. No problem.
ONE.
TWO
THREE
FOUR
Oops, I'm sorry, did I just knock all those over. So sorry, just start again. Come on Kate get those coins stacked.
THREE
Oh dear I did it again. Come on Kate. Keep going. You can do it.
In the end she tried stealing the coins so she could just stack them up without me knocking them over. She was irritated at me. I think it was simple but showed her how it must feel to have everything you do undone all the time. I don't know if it will make a difference but I hope it does!