Cleaning up with a toddler in tow

Toddlers can be strange beings as they copy adults in order to grow and develop.  But I’m not complaining, in fact I’d like to continue to encourage N’s keenness for cleaning.

You can obviously buy children’s toys which replicate real cleaning equipment, but I’ve not bothered.  I’m not sure N would want to play with the toy versions anyway as the only time he’s come across a toy vacuum cleaner at our local soft play, he’s been keen to just push it round as fast as possible amongst everyone’s legs, but has made no attempt to pretend to actually clean the floor.

At home he loves following me around when (if) I’m cleaning.

So far the mop is his favourite.  It’s always in the bucket in the utility room, so if the fridge has been leaking water again (I really need either a bigger fridge or not to keep as much food in there) he’ll go and collect the mop, and start mopping up the trail of water.

The carpet sweeper is also pretty toddler friendly, although the handle isn’t the best as staying put which means I spend a lot of time fixing it rather than carpet sweeping.  N’s not the best at this activity as he’s all about just moving it around but not actually targeting the fluff and bits.

If I get the broom out and don’t let him have a go…it can lead to a meltdown with N trying to grab the broom from me.  Not so disastrous, except that he doesn’t sweep the bits together but further apart.

So that leaves the vacuuming

The one bonus is that N’s not  scared of the vacuum  cleaner like some children are.  In fact, he’ll walk round following me and telling me where the vacuum’s going.  He’s too small to use our vacuum cleaner at the moment (shame), and hasn’t quite grasped the job of ‘cord winder’.  Seems he likes to wind the cord out instead of in, and then gives up.  Some practice needed I think, and some growing.

Mind you, our Henry is pretty heavy especially for going upstairs so I’m not surprised that he’s too small to move it.  If I had pick of the vacuum cleaners, I’d opt for a cute and funky Dyson.  So much fun, and relatively quiet compared to ours – it would mean N wouldn’t get interrupted when watching Peter Rabbit which means I’d stand a better chance of getting the cleaning done without dodging the toddler round the furniture.

What jobs around the house do your toddlers enjoy?  When did you start giving your children chores?

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Disclosure: This is a sponsored post, all writing and opinions are my own.