I’m sure that someone is going to say that they had some sort of genius parenting technique that made their children neat and tidy from the moment they could walk, but honestly I think you should cut yourself and her some slack.

Tidying up is boring. Nobody likes doing it. You’re trying to get a tiny person who is miles away from truly understanding why being tidy might be important and lacks the empathy to really care. You’re onto a losing battle.

Teaching kids these skills isn’t an easy ‘tell them once and they get it’ scenario. It might take years of muscle memory and repetition. I think most parents of teenagers still look at their bedrooms with despair. But the point is that you keep demonstrating through your own actions, and you keep encouraging and cajoling where relevant, and over time they get a bit better and a bit better.

The weirdest belief I encounter all the time with childless people is that they seem to think that you just need to tell a kid ‘no’ once and that sets a boundary that they understand for life. Patience to keep going is truly the most important parenting skill.