Hint for how to get your kids to clean..

I love to clean while wearing my iPod. Makes for great entertainment for my husband too. My kids had a bunch of small toys scattered on the floor of two rooms. I'd asked them multiple times to clean them up, told them twice. Then I said "I'll be in here in minutes, if it isn't clean, they'll be vacuumed up." So, I put on my headphones and proceeded to go elsewhere to clean. After said amount of time, I brought the vacuum into the designated room and started vacuuming. Now - during the time I was cleaning elsewhere, with headphones on, I couldn't hear the whining "but mom.. " or "we can't do it.." statements from my children. Suddenly they appeared in the room to stop me from cleaning saying they hadn't finished yet. My comment (after removing headphones) "you weren't here, so you must have been done". They'd done a little, so I gave them 5 minutes longer and said next time there was no other chance.. It was amazing how quickly they got things done when they put their minds to it. :)

Head phones are great for preventing the whining.. if you can't hear the whine, then it does them no good to voice it.