Once upon a time, there was a mommy in a very small town in Colorado. She and her husband took all of the Growing Families classes available. She was hooked! Her Prep baby slept through the night at eight weeks! This was fantastic!
This mommy really liked the material in the Toddler series. Lots of great ideas! She did blanket time, room time, book time, and playpen time. The rewards were incredible. Her children were very obedient and could entertain themselves! The one thing she glossed over was cleanup toys time. She had only two children, right? It wasn’t that hard to stay on top of their toys, right?
Fast forward a few years. Talk about living outside the funnel! Now she had toys plus clothes plus school papers … And she couldn’t stay on top of it all. She needed her children’s help.
This toy story could have had a happier ending. By taking the time and effort to diligently train her little children to clean up their toys, she could have avoided a lot of clutter and conflict later on.
If this mommy could sit down and chat with you over a cup of tea, she would say: Be the mommy. Diligently train your children to pick up their toys. Start in the playpen where your little ones have only a few toys. It won’t seem so daunting to them or to you! Make cleaning up fun! Maybe put on some happy music or use the timer and make it a game. Orderliness is a habit. Remember the funnel: there’s very little room for clutter in there!
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