Before having kids I thought teaching them to clean up would be similar to the rest of parenting: once they're physically able to do it you start practicing with them, and after a while they're independent and do it reliably. You invest time and effort up front, but it pays back reasonably quickly with benefits for both you and the kid. While we've (n=3) had good success in some areas ( street safety, microwave usage, walking to school, tooth brushing, ...), tidying has not been one of these.

Early on I tried a lot of getting them to clean up, but it was very slow, tended to dissolve into fights, and didn't seem to be getting much better over time. Instead, over time we've mostly moved to finding specific places where they can take on a bounded cleaning responsibility. The goal is to give them practice without overwhelming [...]

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First published:
August 24th, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/zmDx4cecdTmZNiYbq/kids-and-cleaning

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

Small mess of debris scattered on wooden floorboards.

Broom hovering over scattered toys and small items on wooden floor.

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“Kids and Cleaning” by jefftk

LessWrong (30+ Karma)