What is it about kids?

[holliejjj]

Does anyone have this issue?

Juliane's birthday party was suppose to be today and we have like 5 inches of snow so it was cancelled. We told everyone but this one girl who we didn't have their number but I assumed they would understand it was cancelled or call us since they have the invitation with our home phone number on it. Well her mom dropped her off and I thought no big deal the girls can play.

I told Juliane that I didn't want them upstairs in their bedrooms. The girls just cleaned the bedrooms. There isn't much up there since 90% of the toys are stored in the basement. Plus we had them clean their rooms last night but they hadn't cleand the hallway up there and it was a mess. So I said stay in the basement. Well I caught them upstairs with the door shut in Jenna's room. I got after them and told them to go back downstairs. They have come upstairs 5 million times and Juliane ran upstairs to get something and the little girl snuck up there and they tried to sneak makeup downstairs.

Do you ever have your kids bedrooms off limits? It seems like when I do that the kids always sneak upstairs anyway because it is such forbidden fruit. Seriously their room is nothing special and the basement has toys, living room furniture, t.v., air hockey table, a t.v. with the Wii etc. Way better down there!

Now the girl is asking if she can spend the night. Lord help me lol

[carseatmom]

My kids' rooms are never off limits, even when they are clean. I DO expect them to be cleaned when its time for the other kid to go home. I actually prefer for them to play in their rooms, less noise for me LOL. But we do not have a basement either.

[holliejjj]

I have their bedrooms off limits alot because I'm always embarassed by the upstairs these days since having Jasmine. I haven't cleaned the kids bathroom up there in awhile, and the carpet upstairs is 10 years old and so embarassing Even the girl's bedroom carpet has big stains in it from a slumber party gone bad a few years back lol.

But the basement was suppose to be the kid's "hangout". I tried to make it a kid's dream playroom. It has brand new carpet, nice living room furniture and two t.v's seriously I don't know what it is. Even our kids don't go down there often. Everything is down there. They don't even have much in their bedrooms... but it's like just because it's off limits it becomes the most wonderous place. I think next time I will use reverse psychology and tell them to NOT go in the basement lol.

My cousin has the same rule but for different reasons...she never wants her kids bedrooms messed up so she makes the kids go into their finished basement as well and she said same thing..they try to inch their way to the upstairs lol.

[JulieB]

I have kids' bedrooms off limits when we have a group of people over. Just one friend? no, but when we have parties or large play dates, I will shut bedroom doors. Just adds to the mess if bedrooms are avaible and really we don't have anything in their rooms to play w/ anyway. My kids don't disobey me when I say bedrooms are off limits.

Our kids have a play room and a seperate media room to use for entertaining.

[Heather]

We have our homeschool Park Day here once a week or so and there really isn't any 'off limits' areas of our house. (OK, now that I'm thinking about it, the only part that is truly off limits is the crawl space!)

I always just tell the kids that if there is something they don't want the homeschool kids playing with, to put it up in my closet. The HS kids don't go in my bedroom often, but occasionally, I'll find one in there on their way to the bathroom. (We have 2 others, but sometimes, both are in use!)

I get the kids to pick up their rooms beforehand, and everyone chips in and helps straighten up before they leave. We generally have 8 or 10 adults and 20-30 kids, ranging in age from 2 years to 16 years. Yeah, it's wild sometimes, but at least I can participate this way!

[cathie]

Hollie, you are way too nice, lol. If my kids don't follow the rules when friends are over, well the friend goes home that's it!

Does your basement playroom have lots of natural light? From what I read when we were renovating, people feel most comfortable (and hang out) in rooms with windows on two sides.

Our kids bedrooms are not off limits during playdates, parties etc. but they do have to clean them up after friends leave so dd has figured it out for herself and usually makes her room off limits unless she just has one friend over. This does have the effect of making her room the "forbidden fruit" with kids begging to go in but it works because she makes cleaning up her condition for entry lol.