Friday, January 8, 2010

Its Not Bribery, Its An Allowance

Every morning, its the same thing. All 60 wooden blocks are removed from their case. All the dinosaurs come out of their cave. The horses jump down from horse island. The legos are built into trees, parrots, dogs and whatnot. And it stays that way all day.

At breakfast, lunch, snack time and dinner the dishes are discarded on the table (or floor) as somebunny races back to play.

The ears are shut selectively, listening only when its something she wants to hear.

Its left to Frink and me to pick up the literally pick up the pieces.

Until now. On January 1st we instituted a new system. Bunny was given chores to do each day. She has to put her dishes in the sink. She has to help pick up her toys at the end of the day. And most importantly, she has to LISTEN.

If she does all of those things to our satisfaction, she gets a smiley face sticker on her chart for each chore. She also gets a nickel to put in her dinosaur bank.

Man does she love getting nickels. One night, Frink lost track of time and it was past bedtime. When he told her it was time to go to bed, she said no. At first he thought she was being sassy. Then she said "daddy, we have to pick up my toys so I can get my nickel".

Why didn't I think of this before?

5 comments:

michelle said...

Glad to see you're instilling in her a work ethic.
Most parents forget that part of parenting and now we've got a bunch of "kids" who want to get paid well for doing nothing!
I wish more parents would jump on your bandwagon.

Kate Coveny Hood said...

I could see that working with my daughter. The boys...not so much...

It's more a matter of distraction than anything else. I just don't think I could get them to focus on something of that sheer magnitude (you should see my house at the end of the day - it's a war zone). And it would take hours to clean. Ultimately - it's easier to spend 20-30 minutes doing it by myself.


What's that? Try to make them clean up throughout the day? Hahahahahahahaahahah.....ha.

Kirsten said...

You are so lucky she gets excited about a nickel. My kids have started asking for dollars.

Mama Bub said...

Brilliant! My kid loves putting money in the bank. I plan on borrowing this idea :)

tracey.becker1@gmail.com said...

Hope it lasts! My kids always respond well to a new regime, but it seems to peter out after a few weeks...