Parenting Problem

There are many difficulties in parenting, but I recently discovered one that I hadn't really thought of before. Patrick wants us to really start working with Sebastian on cleaning up one toy that he is done playing with before he moves on to a new one. Yes, this is a wonderful habit to have ingrained in you from the time that you are a child, to keep things clean as you go along vs. leaving messes and doing lots of cleaning up all at once. Not only will ones house be tidier, but in the end, it saves lots of time. The difficulty arises when the parent who is mainly needing to teach the child to do this (meaning the mom who is with him all day) is very bad at doing this herself. Yes, my house is pretty tidy, but that is because I clean it every day, not because I just naturally keep it that way. So, the difficulty in parenting comes with how to teach your child good habits that you yourself do not possess. As a parent you need to lead by example, but then, as an adult, you are attempting to learn good habits that you have lived without your entire life. Being a parent is good for ones self-improvement.