Have you ever wondered how to get your kids to notice the mess they are stepping over and around and on as they walk thru a room?  Wouldn't it be nice if the kids automatically straightened up the end table when they put a book down on it and noticed that things were getting a bit piled up there? Or how bout when they walk into the bathroom and see that the baby has pulled the toilet paper all over the room again or the 8 year old left her clothes on the floor again and they actually see the mess as opposed to looking thru the mess? 

Wouldn't that be nice?

Here's a pretty fun game that will get your kids to noticing messes in the house. Whether they pick them up or not is up to your training and their temperaments.

Supplies needed:

* Name tags...the real kind with sticky backs or handmade by your kids or in a pinch masking tape will work

* Glasses and wigs...you can pick up glasses for $1 at the Dollar Store or go to an optometrist and ask if they have any non-Rx glasses they will sell you. They usually have demo glasses stuffed in a box somewhere. Old sunglasses will do in a pinch and look hilarious on little black boys who pretend to be Stevie Wonder or Ray Charles. But I digress...again...Wigs you should be picking up every time you go to the thrift store or a garage sale.  Wigs are a necessary resource for homeschoolers.

* Lab coats, old ties, funky old lady shoes

*Clipboards and pens

Have the kids get dressed up like elderly inspectors. You know what kind of inspectors I mean...the kind who show up at businesses with clipboards and sour looks and try to fine you for every tiny thing you've ever done wrong.  Gee, I'm really digressing badly today. Onward!

Have the kids dress up and hand out the eyeglasses and clipboards. It doesn't matter if your child is 3 yo, he still needs a clipboard because 3 yos can always read what they write even if you can't.

Hand out name tags. Make sure the nametags have really funky old people inspector type names, like Miss Pruit and Mrs. Rimple and Mr. Incredible (ok, my 6 year old insisted) and Mr. Chinsuckle.  Practice the names so everyone gets the names straight.

Now you get into your wig and glasses and old lady baggy dress and get your clipboard and don't forget your nametag, Mrs. Fundlebuns.

Now explain to the children that you are going to tour the bathroom. Some errant child has been saying that the bathroom has been clean, and you, the all-wise inspectors, are going to inspect it. Instruct the children to write down every single thing they can find to clean and straighten, including in the drawers and cupboards and behind the shower curtains.  The more they find, the more they fine!

Talk like an old lady, and encourage your children to use inspector voices. Have fun.

But while you are at it, get that list complete.

Do a couple more rooms if you have time and the children haven't tired of the game yet. You don't have to take forever.  The point is for the kids to start seeing things they've never noticed before.

After you are all finished, tell your co-inspectors that you are going to go discuss the lists and ensuing fines over a cup of tea and make everyone a cup of cocoa or chocolate milk.  No one is actually going to pay a fine, but make up someone (we use Daddy ALL the time), even a ficticious someone, and fine them with ridiculous amounts of money.

Have fun. Point out dirt and clutter. Hopefully, the kids will be pointing it out more than you do. Don't get too serious with this.

"Wait a minute, Mrs. Oreo," you say. "I'm not that kind of mom. I'm more of the serious type. I really couldn't carry something like that off."

Harumph!  I'll tell you what. You go to the thrift store and buy you a pair of orthopedic shoes. Put those shoes on and put on a ratty old wig and some thick framed glasses and dab a wart-like mole on your nose. Then attach a couch pillow to your hienie, and drape a flowered sheet around your waist like a skirt. Screw up your face into a sour expression and start taking small pigeon-toed steps.

Your kids are going to roll with laughter! And all of a sudden you will realize what an amazing star you are to these kids. And come Sunday, the kids are going to be telling all their friends in Sunday School how absolutely cool and fun their mom is. Then you can tell me how you can't carry this off.

Play inspector once a month or maybe a couple times a month, choosing different rooms and do the van and yard in the summer.

Pretty soon they will start seeing the mess.

Then it's time to start training them to be responsible to take care of it when they see it, but that's up to you. I have my hands full training my own kids to do it, and don't have time to come up with a way to teach your kids how to do it too.