Do you clean your teen's room?

[escapethevillage]

My daughter's room is a bio-hazard. I blame myself for not teaching her to work a little harder, and contribute more.

At this point, I think she's going to have to learn the hard way...and I will apologize to any roomates or future husbands, because I definitely dropped the ball.

[ulawolf]

I stop cleaning kids rooms at about 7/8. I will help if it becomes too much but once they are teens they are completely responsible

[sisu]

Originally Posted by TinaDeanette What do you all consider 'decent'? Should I expect it sparkling? My Mother cleaned my room until I moved out!

I don't have a teen, but I think some reasonable expectations would be:

Dirty clothes in a hamper daily
No food left out
No garbage on the floor, etc.
Put his own clothes away (weekly? twice a week?)
Floor cleaned well enough that either you or he can sweep/vacuum (weekly)
Change his own sheets (weekly)


That's not a ton of work for a teen, it should only take a couple hours at the most every week and will keep his room fairly clean.

[Aubrey<3Gavin]

I definitely would not clean for him, but I do think it is reasonable to have some baseline expectations. For example, having clothes strewn about your room so badly that I cannot walk without stepping on them is inexcusable. If you don't get your clothes in the hamper, they should at least be in a pile at the foot of your bed or I was always bad to pile them on my desk chair (still am...) No dirty dishes or food should be left in the room. Basic things like that.

My mom always told me that she was more than happy to wash my clothes with the family laundry, but she wasn't going to go looking for them. If they made it to the hamper, fine. If not then it was up to me to wash them. And she never put my clothes up for me.

Also, periodically I would be asked to dust, vacuum, etc... as a part of the general upkeep for the whole house. There is another natural consequence...if my room was already neat then it took less than 30 minutes to do my "chores." If it was dirty I had to clean it up before I was able to dust, vacuum, etc...

[s@hmommy]

Originally Posted by TinaDeanette What do you all consider 'decent'? Should I expect it sparkling? My Mother cleaned my room until I moved out!

Mom always cleaned ours too. She laughs about it now because she says that is how she knew we weren't trying to hid stuff from her since we knew she was in our rooms constantly.

[JennTheMomma]

I don't have teens, but I do not clean my children's rooms (well we still co-sleep but they have a toy room). They are expected to clean it themselves (sometimes I help) and I remind them every other day they need to tidy it up. When they are preteens and teens they will be expected to clean their room and keep it tidy.

[iceeholic]

Originally Posted by Puppydog You are raising someones husband. Do her a favour and teach him to be a man. I live with an ex spoiled brat and his inability to clean up after himself causes many fights.

A little messy is ok with us, but nothing major. I deep clean their rooms twice a year and other than that they have to clean them.

[sojomisa]

I don't clean my 9 and 11 year olds rooms. My son cleans his once a week, my dd a few times a week.

[jackkant]

I would dump the clothes on the floor just inside his door. But then, I'm not the nicest person. >.>

My parent's rule was that you had to be able to easily walk from the bed to the door, for safety's sake. I also started washing my own clothes when I was 10, so getting in my room to put laundry in there wasn't their problem, either.

[syfitz]

All my kids clean their own rooms (ages 5-14). It's required. Now, I do "deep clean" (steam clean carpets, wash walls and curtains, clean behind and under furniture, etc.) all rooms a few times a year, including their bedrooms. Daily pick-up, dusting, vacuuming and making of beds is their responsibility and I am NOT closing a door and letting things get out of hand. I do laundry, but they have to bring it to the laundry room to be washed and come get it and put it away when it's clean.