[sulahlee]

Why does moms always tell their children to clean up their rooms?
My mom always tells me to clean up the mess and I'm soooo stressed out whenever she tells me to do that. I know that cleaning up is important. It looks neat and maybe good for our health. However... she keeps telling me over and over again. I think she doesn't have to do that all the time. Cleaning up my room just once in a week is ENOUGH!!
Please stop saying that! I had enough of you mentioning that!!

[J_9]

We tell our children to clean up their rooms because we have the rest of the house to clean.

Maybe if you kept your room clean she wouldn't mention it.

[Clemintine]

I agree with a mother wanting to keep her whole house clean and top notch, tells you to clean your room so it can be included... and so she doesn't have too. You don't want your parents cleaning your room really, they stumble across things you don't want them too!
It's to teach you good cleaning habits and skills, discipline and whatnot... If you really do keep it very clean and organized and once a week is fine then you might want to talk to her about it? Approach your mom at a time other than when she's asking you, bring it up and ask if you guys can come to a compromise about it, get her to explain why she wants it cleaned more than once a week?
Gooood luck dealing with this, I hope you do clean it often enough and I hope she can see that if that's the case! I hated when my mum told me to clean my room, but it lead me to being a clean freak at least :P

[sulahlee]

Thanks for your comment J_9'!

[sulahlee]

Hi Clemintine! That comment was really helping... need to talk to my mom more often :)

[mpr27]

The real issue is control. Who controls the space that is yours? Everyone is an individual and sees things their own way. Some kids have filthy rooms and their parents only get mad when all the dishes are under the bed covered with food and no one else can eat. Some kids have kind of clean rooms and their parents make them wash the walls every week. Sometimes parents are nuts about something. I think the first step is determining what the flashpoint is. How dirty do you live? Can you see the floor? How long does it take to go from clean to dirty? Lots of times dirty means disorganized. Kids have lots of clothes, you try stuff on, throw it on the floor, then you run out of time, walk on it. So who is being unreasonable? Is your room THAT dirty? Or is ma THAT nuts? It might be neither, just part of the natural clashing that happens during teenage years, as teens push parents to determine where boundaries are. Talking to your mom might help, but there is probably one thing you are doing that is driving the problem. Maybe you keep food in there, or toss clothes as you try them on. You might be able to make a small change and just remove the issue.

[ScottGem]

The real issue is control. Who controls the space that is yours?

While there may be an issue of control in some situations, I doubt if that is the "Real" issue. Also, the space is not the child's, its still the parent's home. The child is granted a limited right to the use of the space.

There are a variety of reasons. Health issues (too much dust can cause respiratory problems), trying to break bad habits (people don't really want relationships with slobs), responsibility (you need to show how responsible you are for your environment to be able to do other things), etc.

As to the badgering, that's simple. If you kept the room reasonably neat, there would be nothing to badger about.