Hellobee Boards

In this case, I probably would have cleaned it up myself and told her that the sand is now off limits until she shows me that she is able to use it in the right way.

We would've made her help. It doesn't matter that she would've done a horrible job or made it worse. The point is helping to clean up a mess she made.

DD2 is naughtier and will write on walls and such. We make her help wipe it off despite the fact that it's pretty pointless. LOL

I make them help or try to help. Even if she can't do it, she has to try and then I finish. Or I get the mess to a manageable place and make her do the rest.

Yep, I would have made DD try to help clean it up. If she was unwilling, I would have had her watch me clean it up, and taken it out of commission for awhile (until she said she said/showed me she was sorry, for a set # of days....or something. That part would probably depend on my mood and if she had just made the mess randomly, or if she'd done it after being explicitly told not to).

I've put my son in time out before for making a mess (he's obsessed with the broom, so I can't sweep if he's there) and then whatever he had goes away for a while. But now that he's getting older, I try to have him at least attempt to clean up.