Thursday, February 2, 2012

Bribery

If you have never used bribery to some extent with your kids, then your "kids" are not of the human variety. Lately I have grown tired of asking the kids to clean their rooms or help with other household chores only to be ignored. I am not the only one who has grown frustrated with me being on bed rest. I love them to pieces. I really do. It is just stressful on everyone when our house looks like the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina instead of the comforting environment it is supposed to be. They come home from school or play, kick off their shoes, drop their bags, and drag their toys to the living room, our room, bathrooms, or kitchen because they can't see the floors of their rooms anymore. Their bathroom was a NIGHTMARE. Strawberry toothpaste all over the counters, hair crap all over the floor and mirrors, bath toys everywhere, and the oh-so-lovely-evidence of a 6 year old boy all over the toilet. Dan can only do so much. He gets home from work around 6 pm, takes Jay to Karate almost immediately, eats dinner around 7:30 pm, gets the kids ready for bed at 8, fights with them for at least 1/2 an hour (sometimes more) then he is finally able to assess the mess around him close to 9:00 pm. If he doesn't have any clients contact him with problems with their websites, that is. I have tried to give him time to relax and wind down, but it just isn't practical or possible until I can start pitching in again. We have had help, don't get me wrong, but I would literally need to have a live-in maid to keep up with my little mess-makers. It has gotten to the point where they don't care if I revoke their tv/video game privileges because (and this is REALLY sad) they know it is more of a punishment for me. So, again, desperate times call for desperate measures. Jayden's new-found fascination with Star Wars has opened up a whole new world of possibilities for me to bribe him. Yes. Bribe. He has expressed over and over again how he WISHES he had REAL light saber. Well, I got online and found this:




















Oh yeah. And it is only $8.99. (SCORE!!) I told him that for every day he kept his room clean and helped with other household chores, I would put a sticker on a calendar. When he filled his calendar, he would get his light saber. Karah was not about to be left out of this super-sweet deal. She isn't sure if she wants a light saber or a new outfit for her doll, but I told her we could decide when her calendar was filled up. Ladies and gents, I asked them to clean their bathroom yesterday. Those kiddos SCRUBBED that bathroom. They not only picked up their toys, clothes, and garbage, but they SCRUBBED it. Mirrors, counters, TOILET, tub, floors, you name it. I thought that they would put up a fight today when I mentioned cleaning their rooms. Nope. They also picked up the living room. I might just get used to this. I'm going to hang their calendars up in the main room of the house and put a picture of their prize above it. That way they will be able to mark their progress and remember why they are working so hard. I am SO proud of my kids. I know we are only on day 2, but they've made it farther than I thought they would. I just hope that if they keep this up Dan and I can come up with some good rewards in the future that are free, lol.

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