Start young! Growing up, I remember dreading the 'chore' of dishes and cleaning up after meals. At a very young age, we worked into everyone using the same tools for eating and cleaning up. We learned the difference between breakable and not, how to dump our scraps and where to put our plates.
It takes longer to get meals cleaned up, but my kids don't know any different. Everyone clears their own plate. Sure, it means reloading the dishwasher when my youngest is done sometimes, but they're learning so many skills! How the utensils balance (or don't) on their plates, how to grip tight on those plates when they're dangling over the trash, how to be gently in setting down things that can break. They love it and so do we! It makes dining elsewhere much easier, no worries about needing toddler silverware or sippy cups. I know they're not going to throw a ceramic plate on a restaurant floor. They're learning to clean up after themselves and be a part of our family business.
Of course, you know your kids! It can take time to acclimate to the potential dangers of breakable or sharper things, so use your discretion and be safe! It took time for us too. Early on, we'd use a calm, serious tone to talk through how our new plates can break and hurt us if we're not very careful. We needed to be gentle, set them down nicely, use two hands. Often we still use plastic cups outside of dinner time since they seem to be so much more prone to breaking with all the up and down, and learning to drink with an open cup can sometimes mean using teeth or biting in a way that may not be safe with glass.
How does your family make cleanup fun?
Comments