Cleaning with RADs

I think one of the best things about Mondays is all the material my children give me to write about over the weekend. I count no less than 8 new topics that they gave me just in the past 2 days(not counting the others that popped into my head at random times). But I'm sure that's not necessarily a RAD/ODD thing, just a wonderful child thing. After all, if our children didn't amuse us so much, we might just get rid of them. Or not. Either way, they thankfully provide countless hours of entertainment.

Let's take cleaning for example. On Friday the girls had a few simple jobs. Straighten up the dining room and living room, then sweep and vacuum both, followed by cleaning of the bathrooms. We didn't even ask them to clean the grout or anything, just a swish and swipe kind of thing.



Perhaps it's just me, but somehow I wouldn't call that "straightened up", although it looks like they may have possibly swept. But I was always under the impression that "clean" doesn't include dirty dishes on the table? Maybe it's just me. So let's just assume for a moment that for whatever reason, 3 hours wasn't enough time to get everything done and wander into the living room... ???



Uhhhh yeah. Hey I know.. let's push all the chairs together, knock over a few things, and call it clean!! Yay!

And the bathroom? I will spare you pictures of my toilet. Needless to say it was a little better (not much to knock over in there, and I don't think they eat in there so no dirty dishes). But... since there appears to be an obvious need for remedial cleaning skills, we spent all day Sunday doing just that. It took 3 or 4 times of sending them back (although it seemed like it was never ending) to get the jobs done right, but now we have really sparkly clean bathrooms (even the grout is done!), clean bedrooms (swept, mopped and vacuumed), dining room and living room are inhabitable once again, and the kitchen... well.. it's always a work in progress (I'm sure those of you with kids can understand how difficult it can be to ALWAYS have a sparkly kitchen). But the inside of the fridge got bleached and the laundry got done. But what should have taken a couple of hours somehow managed to take closer to 11... and do you think they will have "gotten it" by having to do it over and over and over until it was done right? I guess we'll see.... But given the way the RAD brain works (I think I've covered "steel wool thinking" in a previous post?), and the fact that this is only the hundredth time we've done this, I'm going to give it a resounding "NO". But I'm always happy and willing to be pleasantly surprised :)

So how do your kids clean? Do they actually get it right the first time around? Do you give them lists? Zones? Share your tips!