I’ve got THE Solution to a clutter-free home in just days AND an idea that will leave you feeling like you have definitely made a NICE CALL!
You know when your partner says “NICE Call” or “Good Call” when you make a parenting decision and it works out beautifully. This doesn’t happen all too often in our house, but let me tell you that when it does, I celebrate! I feel so great about making good calls as a parent and you should too.
What was a recent “nice call”
that you made as a parent?
I have made ONE “nice call” this summer that I am super excited to share with you today as I feel like you may want to copy me if you too are struggling to have a Clutter-Free Home this summer!
This is definitely something that many of struggle with, especially in the summer months when the children tend to be around more often. My house turned into a complete dumping ground and it was starting to drive me CRAZY!
So, after a week away at my parents’ cottage, where I found myself being much more conscious about clutter being left around, I found myself less tolerant of the clutter that had built up in our home.
My solution was definitely a nice call for our family! I brought out the “Uh-Oh Box”, an idea that I found on Pinterest that I used last year. Within just a few days, our home had noticeably less clutter lying around. AND, not only were the children being more mindful of where they were putting their belongings, but so was I!
Yes, I will admit that I am one of the major contributors to our clutter-free home.
This Uh-Oh box concept teaches children:
- responsibility
- respect for their belongings
- respect for our home
- that everything has a place
- that their mother is NOT their slave
ALL important life skills, if you ask me!
Basic Uh-Oh Box Concept:
- Child leaves toy/item lying around.
- Parent picks it up and puts it in the Uh-Oh box.
- Child needs to do a job/chore in order to get it out of the Uh-Oh box.
- Child quickly learns to take responsbility for their belongings.
- A happy home and a parent feeling like they made a nice call.
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This post has been generously sponsored by PC Mobile. All opinions are my own and have not been influenced in any way.
I made a bad call yesterday (and every other time) when I stopped at Walmart with my son. I needed to pick up something, we were driving past it, bad call! He automatically wants to look at the toys and it stresses me out! But it is my own fault! Next time he will stay with Daddy!
Oh the temptations for children, eh?! I’ve made that call may times myself. We occasionally need a good reminder what works for us and what doesn’t.
I made a good call the other day when we went out for dinner and the kids had dessert. Although it was late, I insisted we walk by the park and let the kids run around. they were hyper, but it tired them out. By the time we made it home, they were ready for bed.
The park definitely is a great way to tire them out before bed.
Good Call (lets focus on the positive! lol): forcing my kids to go to sleep at a REASONABLE time over the summer… despite the fact that all the other kids are still playing outside. (those kids clearly don’t have to wake up at 6am – and sleep is IMPORTANT)
Oh! Every.single.night. my poor children have to fall asleep to screaming and laughter from other neighbourhood kids. BUT I know it’s a good call for our family as they are early risers (always have been) and it would be so challenging to get them back into routine for school and the tantrums we would face during the day just aren’t worth it.
good call is my son pointing out some good sales clearance items in Walmart that I did not see
Clearance sections are the best!
Good call I made this week taking the grandchildren shopping for back to school items. We found some clothes at Costco that made them happy.
Florence c
I’m hitting Costco today! Can’t wait! Did you buy them snowsuits earlier in the summer?
I made a bad call last night by rewarding my son with cookies for going potty. He was bouncing off the walls until midnight. :/
LOL oh dear – sorry, I shouldn’t laugh, but we’ve all made “bad” calls like that with our kids – bouncing off the walls until midnight isn’t fun. Did you realize that was the cause right away? Often I can’t figure it out for the first hour or two and then I have that “ah-ha” moment! LOL
I made a good Call putting my children into the local Day Camp program for the summer….they had a great time and my daughter came home with Camper of the Summer award. 🙂
That is so exciting for your daughter! My kids are just finishing up their 4th camp week and they too loved it. They are already asking about next year. As a work at home Mom, I need some additional care for the kids for part of the summer – the best call I could have made.
I make a bad call every time I take my kids shopping with me! HA! they always sucker me into buying them stuff
Kids can be challenging on shopping trips, that is for sure.
good call: saying no to buying the Commodore 64c when its popularity was starting to decline. we ended up getting an Amiga a few years later which proved to be far more invaluable for assignments and home work
It’s always hard to tell what the best investment will be! Sounds like you did make a good call.
I made a good call when I limited the amount of time my children could spend playing console games.
GOOD call!
good call getting my kids ready for back to school bedtime routine..started beginning of August
YES! So important!
I made a particularly Bad call when my granddaughter spent the night and we stayed up quite late so that when her mom and dad came in the morning to get her & go to their trailer my granddaughter was quite grumpy, whiny and tired. No more Nanas house before the trailer lol
Nana’s house sounds like a lot of fun! That’s why she stayed up so late 🙂 She is lucky to have you.
made a good call when i took my niece to camp
What kind of camp was it?
soccer camp!
I came across my 5 year old being bullied at our campsite playground and I lost it on her tormentor,not a good lead by example.:(
Oh dear 🙁 It’s hard when your Mama Bear instinct comes into play! You are right, though, as hard as it is….we do need to lead by example as they watch and copy our every move.
Summer camp……best call ever! lol
Agreed! What kind of camp?
As you know I’m a professional organizer so you uh-oh box speaks volumes to me. I’ve started the Konmari method to get rid of clutter. Great book but a lot of work….
I’ve been reading up on the Konmari method – that is my DREAM!!!!!!! Will take a lot of time, but baby steps.
I made a good call encouraging my son to apply for a specific job.
That is great! What kind of job was it?
When the kids were very little and it came to disciplining them, I started out making a very bad call by not staying strong and giving in; letting them off the hook. Later, I learned to always take a moment before doling out any consequences. This way I could come up with restitution/consequences that were fair and that I could manage without going back on my original decision. Kids need to know that we stand by our decisions…however if we make a mistake, we also need to own up to that as well. I once “canned” my daughter for a month lol…on further reflection, I realized that wasn’t going to be a beneficial consequence for anyone so I went back to her and said that I had made that decision in haste and had rethought it. That was the last time I made a snap decision on consequences….they are too important to do that.
I made a good call putting my son onto a soccer team. It really gave him a lot more confidence!
I made a very good call just yesterday. A month ago my son was diagnosed as a schizophrenic. He was in the hospital for 4 weeks until his medication started to work and help him. He was released from the hospital yesterday into a place a lot like a halfway house for a 4-week program to help him better understand what is happening to him and how to better live with it. I don’t live in the same city as he does and when he phoned me yesterday, asking me to come and pick him up because he did not want to stay at the house and in the program, although it completely broke my heart to do so, I had to say no. It is in his best interest to stay at the house and complete the course. He is mad at me right now, but what I did was the best thing for him and his mental health. Once he realizes this and realizes what I did was out of love, I hope he will stop being mad at me. I just want him to get better mentally and go on to live a long, happy life. I love him so much.
I made a great call by telling my daughter to not spend her money on a certain item for her wedding and as it turned out we found one for me..huge money saver
I mad a good call when I was looking after my niece and signed her up for softball (Doris C)
One time I made a good call as a parent was when my son experienced a rash and febrile seizure and we took him to the hospital. It turned out he had a very bad infection that had gone undiagnosed previously and he needed iv antibiotics. I was very upset because I had taken him to different doctors. Also, thankfully he was still nursing and not as dehydrated as he could have been.
Mama instinct works every time! Sorry to hear about your son 🙁
I made a good call last night when we picked up a couple of extra cans of bug spray. The kids really want to be outside and the mosquitoes are really bad right now. Bug spray = the kids can still play outside.
They are really bad this year, I’m finding! I have found a more natural way to keep them away that is working really well for us! A fellow Norwex consultant suggested I try it out – LOVE it! It’s our Peppermint Foaming Hand Soap.
Amazing that you are letting them be outside longer.
I made a good call when I called my son to say goodnight when I was working late
Awwwww!
My recent Good Call was with a health issue with my toddler. She had been throwing up, with a high fever, for 2 days, and we just assumed it was a stomach bug. But when none of the rest of us got it, and when she still had a high fever 2 days after the throwing up stopped, I had a feeling we had misdiagnosed her. Her fever finally reached 41 degrees one night, so I took her in to emergency where they tried to send us home right at the initial point of contact. A doctor was screening patients at check in, and he told us it was a stomach bug. He was adamant that we were wasting our time, and theirs, by bringing her in, but I just had a hunch, and I know my child and how she normally reacts with a stomach bug, so I just knew something else was the matter. He reluctantly let us stay, and accepted my request for a urine sample, and sure enough she came back with a urinary tract infection that also turns out may be part of a bigger genetic abnormality that I may have passed on to her (we go for further testing next week). I am so glad that I made the call to stay even when I was being pressured to accept his opinion – I know my child better than anyone, and I just knew it was more than it appeared to be. The fact that her name in our medical system was still Baby Girl showed him that I was not a hypochondriac who runs in at the first sign of illness – aside from her well-baby checkups she has never used our medical system so far, so that played in our favour when convincing him that she should be further checked out.
You definitely do know your child better than anyone! Good for you for following your Mommy instinct. It works really well when you let it! I’m sorry to hear about your daughter 🙁 Poor little thing.
I make a good call when I offer to take the grandkids for the night, so the parents can get some rest!!
And I’ll line you up right after elizmatt 🙂
my latest good calls were volunteering to baby sitting here whilst my son and wife went off for a fun time for 5 days, and then the same for my daughter both in the same month too 🙂
Oh my goodness! You are the BEST! Want to come to my house next? LOL
I made a good call buying my granddaughter the teething mitt, she loves it.
Oh yes! Isn’t it the greatest? Where did you hear about it Carole?
A blogger was having a contest. I didn’t win but I bought one.
I made a good call when I babysat my grandchildren for nine months when their mom was away on tour with the army.
You are an amazing grandmother! I bet your daughter/daughter in-law (not sure which) was SO grateful.
I don’t want to go into a lot of detail, but I made a good call with bringing my son to the doctor for something my gut was telling me wasn’t good.
I made a good call when my daughter was of shortness of breath I knew something was wrong, took to ER, was told if I didnt bring her early it wouldve been worse.
I made a bad call not going to the park last night. They were crazy in the house all night.
gave in when they wanted to buy that super sugary treat…. had the rest of shopping to do, but at least they kept quiet afterwards
I made a great call last weekend when I offered to babysit my great-nephew. Gave his parents a break and we had so much fun with him!
I made a good call by not letting my son do everything he wants to do,at 16 yrs old!
I made a good call when putting my girls in swimming lessons this year.
As hard as it was at the time, I made a good call with my son when he was 17 by not bailing him out of trouble. He learned from his actions, and is a much better person today because of it.
i think regardless of what we do, we will be called bad parents it seems. But not letting them have their tv in their rooms during summer
I made a good call when I encouraged my daughter to be more independent, like making her own lunch for school, helping with dinner, etc. And now a couple years later she is a huge help to our household & has more confidence in herself.
Lately I’ve been having trouble remembering that my son is 3 now, and when we’re at home he’s more often than not trying to help me rather than cause trouble. I’ll see him carrying a forbidden object and go to yell at him, only to realize he’s taken it away from his sister and is bringing it to me. He’s a really good kid.
We’re not parents quite yet. still expecting
Best call was having my son
I made a bad call when I assumed Sophie was teething when she cheeks swelling up. Turns out she had a massive gum infection caused by a splinter shed got when she was chewing on her crib.
Probably always having open and honest dialogue has been my best call.
With my son my good call was encouraging him with his interest in cooking since he was a child, now he is going to go to culinary school! double bonus..he makes us dinner often so I don’t have to cook all the time!with my daughter, she had alot of health problems in her early school years and missed alot of school, in grade 2 put her in a class to basically catch up and have alot of extra help, this helped her so much and she is now an A honor student ever since!
My daughter is 29, and I don’t know exactly what I did right, but she talks to me about anything. So I guess I made a few good calls.
Ours are too young to tell the good calls from the bad!
My best call, so far, has probably starting early on with my twins x 2 with a solid sleep schedule.
One of my bad calls was letting my son keep his suckie until the doctor told me it was causing dental problem…aughh….
I’m not a parent but I can share a good call my mother made. I’m handicapped and my mom made me a neck pillow as a young lady that saved me from losing my ability to sit up and eat food.
Not sure if it’s good or bad call. But I told my daughter that since mommy works very hard in order to earn them to have a comfortable life, so we have to be cautious about spending money. I know that she wants to buy new toys from time to time, but I have told her that first, she needs to see if it is on sale. If it is not on sale or with only a tiny little discount, mommy will not buy it. If it’s on sale and with big discount, but it’s not her birthday or Christmas, then she needs to work hard on a task (project) that I gave her in order to earn that reward.
I believe I made a bad call when my teenage daughter told me some bad news, I should have told her that I loved her and would stand by her.
being cautious when it comes to my kids health and taking them to the dr. my husband tends to be dismissive and think everything is fine even when mom’s intuition is saying it’s not
I think its a good parent call when we started giving my 5 year old allowance for him doing chores.
Not a parent, but a good call my Mom made was force me into swimming lessons. So glad she did.
I had a few close together. They’re sisters and friends. I think that was a good call.
I did not hand things to my children when they were growing up. They learned how to work hard for what they wanted. It was a good call because they are all successful and still work for what they want not expecting hand outs. Friends who got everything handed to them have found real life a challenge.
A good call my mom made when I was a kid was to send me for snowboarding lessons when I started acting up. It kept me distracted!
I made a bad call when I wasn’t patient enough with my kids
Bad call to cut my LO’s nails when she was awake. Accidentally clipped skin and caused bleeding 🙁
Bad call by giving my 4 yr old a glass of chocolate mil before bed…not only did it take forever for him to go to sleep he had an accident too!
My current ‘bad call’ is not having my 5month old sleep in his crib for naps… and not really having a nap schedule either :/
I made a bad call last night letting my daughter stay up a bit later than usual. She was up just as early and cranky all day!
I think I made a good call when I enrolled my son in a french immersion school. He has lasted all the way through elementary and is now in high school. I think having a second language will benefit him greatly into adulthood and in the job market
My latest greatest good call was selling our house, leaving the big city (including all our family) and moving to a small town on the coast so my daughter could have a better childhood and education. And so far we are all so much happier!
I think I made a good call by encouraging my daughter to take swimming lessons! She was a little scared at first but now LOVES it!
I made a good call as a parent by creating structure, discipline and rewards system with my kids, so they learned responsibility early on, and consequences for things, but also rewards and that it takes hard work. I believe I instilled good values in them, that will guide them in life.
A good call taking the kids to the library at a young age….they love reading.
good call – started giving the kids choices (at first between 2 things) from a very early age. they learn to feel control while knowing there are boundaries and consequences. thanks
When I let my nieces choose what extra curricular activities they wanted to participate in.
encouraging my kids to read read read, they love reading now
Complaining is pretty much never a good call. If you are a complainer then you will get more trouble than you would if you don’t complain. This is referring to neighbors. Kids learnt that by living in an apartment.
I thought at the time I was pounding my head on the wall but my daughter came home with an atrociously written homework assignment and I made her re-do it till it was neater. She passed it back in (she had the chance to re-do the answers she got wrong) and got a ton of points on the corrected answer AND how much neater it was. After that if I saw her work and it was messy she had to re-do it and now all of her teachers comment on how neat and easy it is to read her work. She still talks about how upset she was when I did it but how worthwhile it was now… even though she passes less and less in written – she find her notebooks are easier to read.
M
A good call was teaching my daughter to knit.
These are some really great tips that I can use!
A good call was taking them to the library from an early age to encourage reading.
encouraging my kids to read
When praising/acknowledging the good behavior.
Helping my daughter with her self esteem
I have been making my son take me out on dates since he was small, he’s 8 now. We talk about where to go and do and he opens doors for me. I just want him to know how to treat a woman. We talk and he’s learning how to be social with restaurant staff and service workers. Now we are moving on to home cooking, every man needs to know how to cook a good meal.
As an aunt, I tend to give a lot of life lessons to my nephew. I.e. playing games like GTA at his age.
there was one time i remember when i hugged my child very tightly because i was so angry at him
Good call by encouraging independence even if it’s messy or time consuming.
I think I have made a good call by limiting the amount of time my children play video games
Good call by setting sleeping schedule, no more late nights.
I’m not yet a mom, but I’m sure I’ll make plenty of mistakes.
It’s human nature 🙂 We all do!