start 'em young.

In my quest to be the best mommy possible (HAHA!), I have asked a lot of seasoned mommy veterans for any advice as I raise my 2 young kids. Multiple times I have been told that the biggest regret was not teaching their kids to clean. So I have been trying to teach Liam how to clean, and not only how to clean but to not hate cleaning. It's a fine balance, especially with a toddler boy. It's hard to not make cleaning a control battle and to teach him to hate it or overwhelm him by giving him to much to do. So I have been making it fun by making it a race, giving him rewards after he cleaned, giving him little goals that are do-able for him (like cleaning up 10 toys) etc. I want him to get to the point where he cleans on his own without me having to be a pesky mama. 

But today was a day where I realized my work wasn't in vain. Twice he cleaned on his own initiative. It was awesome :) None of these pictures were posed by me, it's all him! He is such a good boy...

1. When he was eating breakfast he spilled his dry cereal on the couch. I was running around doing other things and he went to the closet, got the broom out and proceeded to try and "clean" his mess. I was so proud of him as I watched him try to clean up his mess, even though he didn't clean it at all. Of course, I praised him TONS and really cleaned it up when he wasn't looking.

2. During the kids naps I washed all the windows and the walls. So I had my window cleaner and paper towels on the ground. As soon as he woke up, he saw the paper towels and window cleaner and proceeded to "clean" the windows. So cute. He kept saying "I do a good job mom!" But I really think he was doing this to see the bubbles after he sprayed it ;)

I LOVE his face in this picture!

So today was one of those days where all my work that I thought was in vain and not working at all,

Actually was working. But more importantly, getting through to him.

It's good to know all my work and teaching will pay off eventually.

Cause heck, it's starting to already!!

Mommy friends, what do you do that works the best when you are teaching your kids how to clean?