Parenting has frustrating moments.  One of which is miscommunication.

 

I heard a conference speaker offer a memorable solution to the miscommunication entitled, “Go clean your room."

 

He told us that some day when the child is not present, WE should clean the child’s room just as WE want it to look.  Then, take a camera, kneel down to about the child’s eye-level, and snap pictures of the room.

 

Next, tape the pictures on the doorpost outside the child’s room (at about his eye-level).

 

The picture’s “point of reference” solves a huge problem, because instead of the nebulous “Go clean your room,” we can now say, “Go make your room look like the picture.”  The training comes in the follow up.  "Does your bed look like the bed in the picture?"  "Does your floor look like the floor in the picture?"  "Do you see any dirty clothes in the picture?"  And so on.

 

It works.  Yes, there is hope!