pick up toys battle

is it wrong to tell my 3 year old he doesnt get dinner until his toys are picked up?

every day he takes his toys out into the living room by the bucket full. does his thing and every day they are left for me to pick up. i really dont know how else to do it, ive tried encouraging, picking up with him etc.
but honestly, i dont have time or patience for that smurf. he gets distracted and stars playing with something instead of putting them away and i end up battling with him until its time to move on to the next thing (dinner, bedtime, go shopping, etc.).
but right now, hes hungry. and im tired. and pissed that the house is already a mess and i cant even walk without stepping on one of his goddamn toys.

so im making dinner, and told him to pick up his toys. i told him he wont get his dinner until the toys are picked up.
he understands this concept, but still isnt picking them up yet. i dont think he thinks im serious lol...
idk if i am really.

is this a good method? any other suggestions?

my son is almost 5 and when he wont listen I take his skylanders away and his video games, and thats all it takes lol.

It works with my 3yr old. I tell him he can't have/do something, until all his toys are packed up, and he picks them up right away.

Quoting Mason & Carmen's Mommy:" my son is almost 5 and when he wont listen I take his skylanders away and his video games, and thats all it takes lol."

blah....the messed up thing is once i told him i would take his toys away by grouping if he didnt pick them up. he got it at like the last grouping so even now he only has a fraction of the toys he used to. didnt really put up a fight or care. he has fun with bubble wrap and paper towel rolls lol.

I make DD sit in her little red chair until she agrees to pick up her toys. It usually gets her going pretty fast.

Quoting cunning cuniculi:" blah....the messed up thing is once i told him i would take his toys away by grouping if he didnt ... [snip!] ... a fraction of the toys he used to. didnt really put up a fight or care. he has fun with bubble wrap and paper towel rolls lol. "

My son doesn't care if I take toys away either. He doesn't even notice. I don't know if witholding dinner is the best method, but if it's what you have to do...

I try to race him and say that I'm gonna win doing what I'm doing before he wins picking his toys up. Or...I'll say "Let's see how fast you can be. Can you run and put this away and come back before I count to 5?" And he'll do it.

When my kids refused to pick up their messes I gave them a chance to pick it up and told them anything that was left out I was going to throw away. I followed through and did exactly that. From there on when I asked them to pick up, they did.

I would start getting him in the habit of picking things up when he's done with them, if you haven't already. Catch him when he goes to take out a new toy/activity and ask him to pick up whatever he just finished with first. If he refuses, he doesn't get to play with the next toy/activity.

I think to starve a child of any age until they do what you say, is wrong. 3 is old enough to learn how to pick up toys, but he's still young. Try helping him a little & make a game out of it. If it's fun, he'll probably be more willing to do/help pick up the toys rather than you being angry over it.

***double post***