Dad Hailed A 'Genius' For Using Rice Trick To Get Teenagers To Clean Their Rooms

Aug 20, 2021

For many families, getting teenagers to clean their rooms is a constant battle. They huff and puff, think of excuses, say they’ll do it later or do the bare minimum — anything but what you’ve asked them to do. The question is: How can you get your kids to keep clean, especially when you have less and less influence over them as they grow up? One creative father has an inventive solution: trick your kids into cleaning their rooms.

Chad McHunt, whom both the Mirror and The Sun have both called a “genius,” came up with the clever idea in April 2021 when his teenage kids continued to eat in their rooms against his wishes.

In a post to Facebook, McHunt explained that his kids would simply ignore his requests for them to stop eating and leaving dishes in their rooms. As an explanation, McHunt said that leaving food might attract a mouse that would, in turn, invite its whole family over to the bedroom feast.

But McHunt’s word of caution fell on deaf ears — until McHunt got creative. The father drove to Whole Foods, where he bought grains of uncooked black rice. As you can see in the photo below, the grains look rather like mice droppings, and so McHunt peppered his children’s rooms with the rice. After what McHunt told his kids, naturally they were shocked, thinking that mice had actually got into their rooms.

While we can’t be sure whether McHunt ever told his kids the truth, he says that his family doesn’t “have that room cleaning issue any more.”

“So, I have teenage kids. I’m always arguing with them about not eating in their room, returning dirty dishes to the kitchen. I threatened that they're going to end up with a mouse in their room that will brings friends to the house... I got tired of singing the same song and decided to teach them a lesson. I went to Whole Foods, purchased some black rice and sprinkled it in their closet, under their bed, I even added a few under their covers,” McHunt explains in his April 2021 Facebook post, which has since gone viral with over 10,000 likes and 4,000 comments.

Many Facebook users tagged their friends in the comments, telling fellow parents that they wanted to try McHunt’s method.

Other parents also pitched in with their own ideas.

“Too good, Love it. I should have thought about that when my son was a teen. Thank God he moved out,” Rosie McPartland Brennan wrote.

“Not bad. I use to bag up there stuff and when they asked for it I would say its in the dumpster. One trip to there was enough especially when I had there stuff in my room,” Eileen Monaghan commented.

There are a few more conventional ways to get your kids to clean their rooms, too. 

Setting a good example is, as PsychCentral points out, a good first step. That is to say that, as a parent, you should keep your home clean and take pride in the daily tasks involved in keeping your spaces tidy. “Kids take in what we do through the pores of their skin. What you do normally is what they come to see as normal and expected,” PsychCentral explains. Additionally, it's important to define what it means to have a clean room, so children have clear guidelines.

What do you think of McHunt’s parenting hack? How do you get your kids to clean their rooms? Let us know — and be sure to pass this great idea on to other parents!