How to Wash the Floor with a Toddler (12 mon old)?

Our 1-year-old Arseny is a very active, I would even say passionate, young man. If he NEEDS something, he will try to obtain it with much persistence. And he always needs what his mummy has in her hands. And immediately. Right now. That is why it is difficult for his mother to do anything about the house. For example, to wash the floor in a three-room apartment.

Usually my hubby helped – at weekends or in the evening after work – he drew our son’s attention away from me washing the floor. But the baby was growing and it became a problem. I wanted to wash the floors in the mornings and to spend time with my family and rest - in the evening.

One morning I felt determined… Without any certain plan in mind of how I would combine dirty water and our energetic Arseny, I relaxed and prepared myself for an experiment.

As it had been expected, as soon as Arseny saw the swab and the bucket, he decided that everything is prepared especially for him. With enthusiasm peculiar to him, the child rushed to the bucket. My warnings that “it’s hot” made him slow down a bit. He did not put his hands into the water but carefully touched it with his finger.

But even a 12-month-old knows that it is not hot to dip the swab into the water. So, with much enjoyment he puts the swab into the bucket and pours water onto the tiled floor . As for me, I am crawling on my knees with a floor cloth at that time – washing the floor not forgetting to run up to Arseny every three minutes – to dry a puddle until it turned into a flood.

Sailing

In such a way we washed the floors in one room. Than we changed the water in the bucket.

To my great surprise, the child’s interest in dipping the swab into the bucket faded in the middle of the second room. May be, the reason for it lies in the fact that we have been playing with water much of late. A saucepan with boiled water and a spoon, sponge, a bottle lid in addition to it – for me to have breakfast/lunch/dinner peacefully and to put the kitchen in order (I have already got used to having breakfast peacefully abundantly being sprinkled with cool splashes). So, it turns out the baby can be bored even with water!

Now I do not remember already what Arseny was doing while I was cleaning the rest of the floor. I hadn’t felt so much joy from cleaning the house for a long time already! And my hubby was so much happy to learn that in the evening we were not going to wash the floor with the elements of a circus show for little ones

And how do you combine a curious toddler with house cleaning?

Natalie

Illustration to the article

Pic. by T. Alekseeva

This article in Russian is published in the Russian version of “Parents’ Ideas” here.

Next time you will learn how to make not trivial pegs in the bathroom.