Keeping Clutter At Bay For Your Kid’s Sake

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I finally went through my “Parents” magazine for October and came across an interesting tid-bit about how tidy your house is. Apparently, how clean you keep your house will reflect on your kids in the future. Here’s the quote:

According to a research report in the “American Economic Review,” children who are raised in a neat, orderly home grow up to be more successful in their school and work lives than kids who live in a messy environment.”

Those are powerful words. I believe that homes that are clean and clutter-free offer better environments for the people who live in them so I guess I’m not surprised by this finding that it affects children too.

Cleanup routines improve a child’s ability to stick with a task and plan well later in life,” says Dr. Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, who led the review.”

So parents, let’s get out kids to help with all this clean up. Start with getting them to help make his/her bed in the morning, put the toys back at night, put his/her dishes in the sink after dinner. I think if we start when they are young it will make it easier for all of us in the end.