do y our kids keep their clothing in their dressers or are they like mine and empty an entire drawer just for the fun of it? and what do you do about this?
thanks for the responses. i don't fold, i shove it all in a drawer and pray she leaves it there. just wanted to know if i was the only one that had this theory (and reading the responses i see i am not alone!)
eta, some things get a little bit wrinkly but not too bad.
ages 3 and nearly 5 but its the 3 yr old that does it
This must be a girl thing, because I have always folded my boys' clothes and kept them in the dresser and never had this problem. Sometimes they mess up the drawers a little if they are looking for a particular shirt or something, but that's about it.
If you don't fold aren't the clothes awfully wrinkled?
In your last two posts, you have not been happy with the answers we gave you. I'm baffled as to if you will just accept my answer but here goes:
I keep an eye on my son. If he were to dump out an entire something, he'd be putting everything back in. Simple. Lather, rinse, repeat. Simply and calmly, "you have to reload that drawer/basket/container before we can move on to the next fun thing". Nothing to get upset about. Kids do this, we just teach them to clean up. Simple. Simple. Simple.
ETA: so you are blaming everyone else for your behavior. okay, good to know. Please don't forget, this is a public forum. People are allowed to tell you 'good job' and blow sunshine up your skirt or throw tomatoes as they choose. One does not get to dictate how others answer.
ETA: ahh. I expected you to have another excuse filled SWH. You are really full of yourself. Poor kids.
If you're so happy with your "other" site, why are you here?
ETA2: Nice to see that you changed your SWH to a more appropriate SWH.
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I don't understand why you are asking a question because EVERY time you have asked a question, you have come back with snippy SWH's because you didn't get the answers you were looking for.
Anyway... yes we kept daughter's clothes in her dresser and she was taught that if you make a mess, you clean it up.
Just teach them. There is no magic wand, you teach your children and many times you have to repeat and repeat until they learn the process.
My kids never played in their drawers. They may have taken out several outfits to try on for the day, but we worked together to put them away until they learned. They pick it up though.
Yes, her clothing belongs in her dresser. If she empties it for fun, she gets to fold it all and put it all back in. Same with toy bins.
I put my kids clothes (everything except socks, etc.) on hangers right out of dryer.
Kids collect their clothes (little ones are hung up as outfits to make it easier for them to get dressed in morning) and hang in their closets.
They fold the other stuff (socks, etc.) and put away. If their socks get messy, I could care less. So long as they wind up put away at some point.
If my kids make a mess, they clean it up.
If you do that, they don't find it quite so much fun next time :)
I removed all dressers from my house. Instead, I have bins in the closets. These are great for kids because as young as two they can put away their own clothes.
In our house, if you make the mess, you clean it up.
We used a combination of dresser & closet, with a 2nd (lower) bar in the closet and some hanging shelves (closet organizer) that left stuff visible. I don't think kids are much better with hangers than with drawers/folding.
What does help, I think, is a set of drawer organizers. I've also used shoe boxes. Dividing drawers make things easier to keep stuff straight. So if underpants go in shoebox 1, and undershirts in shoebox 2, and socks in #3, it makes finding things easier. Do the same with a shirt drawer - organize by color (whites in one, pastels in another, darks in a third) or whatever other criteria work for you. I'd make a separate category for outfits - where tops and bottoms match. As the kids grow, shoeboxes don't work but larger boxes do.
I think kids do have to be responsible for organizing some of their stuff, particularly if they pull it all out to find one particular thing. But setting up some guidelines and organization is fine. For kids too young to read, it's often helpful to put a photo of the category on the outside of the drawer so they know where to start.
Your kids are 2 and 3? My granddaughters are nearly 2 and just turned 4. The younger one does pull clothes out of drawers just for fun. The older one leaves clothes on the floor after trying to find a certain top or bottom. My daughter has the older one put clothes back if she's in the room with her. It really isn't a big deal for her mom. The younger has great fun pulling clothes out. Her mom removes her from the room and then scoops up the clothes and puts them back. She doesn't encourage throwing clothes around but she also doesn't get upset. Your toddlers are little. Discipline is to remove them. Give consequences that relate to the action. At 2 and 3, their brains are very basic. They are not able to understand why you're upset. As they mature they will be better able to stop this. Now they are just too little.
You can do things to make getting into the drawers difficult. Prevention works better at this age when they're into exploring their world. Remember you've done your exploring and don't find throwing clothes fun. They will lose interest in doing this if you accept it. When it's a big deal that gets your attention they are likely to continue to see your reaction.
My daughter doesn't have a dresser. We put a bookshelf with a tension rod (put the clothes at her level...) in her closet. All of her shirts get hung up, her socks and underwear go into bins on the dresser, and her pants/pajamas/leggings/etc. Get folded and set on the dresser.
She doesn't always keep it nice and tidy, but I do expect her to keep things on it. If she empties it off, then she gets to put everything back.
Don't fold. Yes, my girls have always emptied dressers and changed 7 x per day. Some moms solve this by hanging everything. But with a third baby it was important that my girls dress themselves, which means they needed access to their clothes.
But I have had days when it took 2 hours to pick up their rooms. So not sure you should listen to me.
Anyhow, I fold clean laundry. but during this stage, if it was still clean but on the floor, I just piled it back in the drawer unfolded. Sad but true.
