On The Subject of DCKs Picking Up

[Josiegirl]

I know sometimes the younger crowd has to be helped or encouraged but dang, what about the older crowd??? They KNOW where stuff goes, I try to be nice and let them have access to it all so as not to limit their creativity but when I find kid scissors tucked in a dinosaur bucket, or craft bags of feathers strewn all over the playroom, due to their carelessness and EXTREME laziness, it just pi$$e$ me off!!
I used to allow them access to a spare bedroom during nap time(right off the kitchen where I sit watching everybody), they'd pull out the spare mats/cots and rest with their iphones, etc. They loved it BUT they abused it. They wouldn't pick up, they didn't recover the outlets, they'd leave their cups of water.....so they lost that privilege.
Frankly, I am tired of having to be a drill sergeant for them when THEY should know better.
One more week........

[Chickadee-Tree]

Omg, I feel your pain!!! I only have a couple PT school-agers now, but I worked in a fairly large center's SA program for many years... They can be worse than infants, some of them! The blank stares I would get when asking them to clean up a simple board game... So frustrating!

Somehow, the messes just *magically* appeared in the SA room-- no one would take out anything (according to the kids), yet the toys still ended up all over the floor!

And it seemed that as they got older, they got LESS responsible, and way less respectful. (There were some exceptions though...of course parenting and home life have a lot to do with that!)
So disheartening, when all I wanted to do was cool activities, art projects & science experiments, play sports/do outdoor activities and give them fun team challenges ...but instead, I had to be a drill sergeant for much of the day, to assert myself and not allow them to run the show.
It ended up being a big part of my decision to leave and open my home daycare instead.