When You Give Your Child a Cleaning Cloth...

My kids love the book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Real life inspired a new version of the book for my family. It all started the day before we hosted play group and cleaned like crazy. My three-year old helped me clean the glass and other smudges around the house. I paid him a quarter for helping with a good spirit and gave him lots of hugs and praise. Since then, he hasn't stopped wanting to help clean (more than I even want to clean each day!). Here's our version:

If you give your child a cleaning cloth,
He'll ask for a spray bottle.
If you give him a spray bottle,
He'll ask for something to clean.

When you give him something to clean,
He'll spray and spray,
And you'll have to remind him to
wipe and wipe until it's dry.

When it's dry, he'll ask for something else to clean.
When you give him something else to clean,
He'll be so happy, he'll spray until his bottle's empty.
Then he'll ask you to refill his bottle so he can clean some more.

After he's cleaned some more,
He'll ask you if you can mop the floor.
You'll say no.
You'll be surprised you've been shown up by a three-year old,
who is more motivated to clean than you.

The next day, he'll see the spray bottle
And you know what he'll ask.
He'll want to clean some more.
So you'll let him.

Then he'll look at the floor.
So you know what he'll want.
He'll ask to mop the floor.
You realize you should probably mop your floor...someday.
He'll help you.
Tomorrow.