"Is your room clean?"

Mommy, can I go out and play? Is your room clean? It's the age old conversation between child and parent. I had it with my own a few times or more in my childhood I'm sure. It's a never ending battle getting them to pick up their toys.

I'm sure all you mom's out there can feel my pain. Or at least I hope you can. I am getting so frustrated with my girls ideas of cleaning their room. It's a struggle every day. They complain that it's never good enough for me. That's not true. It's always the same areas with them. Natalie's desk if never clean and Kaitlyn's drawers are never closed and under her bed is never clean. They are not home right now. They went fishing with daddy. Before they left I told them I wanted their rooms clean and their laundry sorted because while they are out having fun I sit and do laundry.

So this is how it went today.

Me: "Get your rooms clean and laundry sorted before you go fishing"
Girls: "Groan whine, but but but..."
Me: "No buts just get it done and you can go fishing"
Girls: Stomp Stomp Stomp out of the room

I go about feeding the baby and I hear this:
Natalie: "Well fine I'll wear pants then!"
Kaitlyn: sobbing
Me: "What's going on now?"
Natalie: "Kaitlyn wanted to wear shorts and I told her she couldn't."
Me: "You're not her mother. Kaitlyn wear pants!"
Kaitlyn: "Okay mommy!"
Me: "Are your rooms clean?"
Natalie: "Mine is."
Me: "What's Kaitlyn doing?"
Natalie: "Putting her pants away that she pulled out looking for shorts."
Me: rolling my eyes picturing how those pants are getting put back in the drawer.

Then Kaitlyn comes out to help sort the laundry.

Me: "Make sure those rooms are clean."
Girls: "Groan whine whine whine"
Me: "Okay, you don't have to go fishing then."
Natalie: "You never think our rooms are clean."
Me: Ignoring that comment.

Now daddy is growing impatient. Girls have finished sorting laundry, but are not dressed.

Daddy: "Go get dressed!"
Girls run into their rooms to get dressed. Next thing I hear out of there:

Natalie: yelling "Kaitlyn find your shoe!"
Me: "Now what's the problem?"
Natalie: "Kaitlyn's taking her time finding her shoe."
Me: "Are YOU ready?"
Natalie: "Almost."
Me: "Well then never mind what your sisters doing you get yourself ready."
Natalie: "But I want to go fishing."
Me: "Well, if you're ready you'll get to go, but if Kaitlyn isn't she can stay home."
Kaitlyn: "Nooooooo!"
Me: "Hurry up and get dressed!"
Daddy: "You've got 5 minutes!"
Me: "Don't forget a hat!"
Kaitlyn: "Natalie can you get my hat?"

Finally I think we're getting somewhere. They all get out of the house. But why didn't I check their rooms? I should have because I went in there to bring them their comforters for their beds from the dryer and what do I find? Well, we'll start with Kaitlyn's room.

Clothes all over the floor. Are they clean are they dirty? Drawers open with pants hanging out of the drawers. Wait, what's this? These are dirty pants in the drawer with clean clothes. Socks under the bed. No wait, there's papers and toys under there too! This is just Kaitlyn's room. Now steam is surely coming out of my head. What do I do now? I know I want to completely clean out the room of EVERYTHING! Okay, I can't do that. Where would I put it all? All right, so mattress and box spring off bed so Kaitlyn can see the huge mess under there. Okay, off they go and into Natalie's room I go. Ugh, she's got clothes on her unmade bed. Oh no and toys on the floor. And her desk, well that put me over the top. So now I'm pulling all of the stuff off of her desk and onto the floor that is either not where it's supposed to be or not neat. Boy are these girls going to be surprised when they come home. I haven't even looked under Natalie's bed or in their closets to see what's in there. I think this is enough for me for now. They can make sure those are clean when they get home and pick up their huge mess.

Why do they take so much effort to stuff things in places trying to make the room appear clean, but not actually put the stuff away? Heck, today they didn't even do that. They just completely ignored my instructions to get their rooms clean. I guess I should be happy that they sorted their laundry. Although, half of it was still sitting on the floor in Kaitlyn's room.

Time and time again I have told them if they just put away what they were playing with when they were done playing with it then their rooms wouldn't be so hard to clean. Time and time again they have promised me that they are going to keep it all picked up and neat when I get to my whits end with them and their rooms, but they still don't do it.

Does anyone want two huge toy boxes full of toys and then some? Seriously, I think it's time to clean it all out of here and then maybe just maybe they'll see that I mean business!