There is a bit of a parenting debate going on tonight at the Butler Casa. It is summer as you all know. We love summer at our house and the last 2 summers have, well, to put it mildly...sucked. John was in the hospital the majority of summers 2010 and 2011. He is healthy for summer 2012 and we could not be happier. We are going to the beach, ALOT. We are going on vacation in July. It will be fun, fun, fun...except!

The kids are home all day and they are very messy, little creatures. Mess is good though and I want them to be creative and have fun all day long. However, when they are finished being creative and fun. I want them to clean up their mess and so does John. We agree on this one.

There are some aspects of how this cleaning will be completed that we do not agree on. So tonight when asked to clean up the play room and the living room, much whining ensued and some tear and a few "it's not fairs". This happens pretty much every time the kids are asked to clean up anything beyond their dinner plate. So I had an idea, I told them that they would be home all day, most days in the summer and whatever they got out to play with, they had to clean up...everyday. I told them they had to do this without whining and crying or I would clean up whatever they chose not to and give it to charity.

I thought this was brilliant (Heck, I still do). Bree thought it was a total injustice and ran to her dad crying about how mean I am. Brooke took is pretty well. She had a few questions like, "what if I stub my toe at the same time you ask me to clean up, therefore, I am crying when you ask me to clean up but it is not about cleaning up? then do I have to donate my toy?"

So in comes dad, his opinion is on side with Bree that this is much too harsh. He agrees that they must clean up and as a consequence for not doing so then they would only be allowed to play with toys in their rooms. I don't see that happening but he is the psychologist.

So now we pose the question to the Curve ball audience, what is the best way to get your children to clean up their mess day after day. Beach's way, John's way or other?

Thanks for your support.

Becah