Dana Macario at the mom blog “18 Years to Life” recently wrote an account
of how, to teach her kids to pick up their toys, she and her husband gathered up all the toys strewn about, stuffed them into large trash bags, put them in a closet and told their kids that
for each night they picked up the rest of their toys, they could earn back one of the “hostage” toys. Logic would dictate that the kids would want their toys back badly, and it would take so long
to earn them back, that once earned back, the kids would think twice in the future about leaving them lying everywhere. Logic would say this was a great way to teach kids a lesson in being neat
without having to nag, “Pick up your toys!!” Only Dana’s kids chose …
Category: Kids and Cleaning
Unskilled for Living: “Chores” should not be a dirty word
Whenever Allison has to pack her own lunch bag before school, I often hear the “But nobody else
has to make their own lunch!” complaint. Many parents would probably say, “You don’t know everybody” to that one, or my answer, “Well, I feel sorry for them!” but secretly I wonder that
she just may be right, sadly. When she was in a jr. high “Skills for Living” class (the politically correct title for what we knew as Home Ec), she came home on …
The Big “But”
I’m throwing in the towel about…well, about throwing the towel. And the clothes. And the shoes, magazines, old shopping bags, old Kleenexes, and everything else that my teen manages to throw on her floor. See, I’ve decided, with the high school years dawning bright and early on Monday, that I’m giving up the battle of the teen bedroom. I’ve decided that my daughter is truly not a morning person and I’m tired of deducting allowance every time her bed isn’t made or her clothes aren’t picked up by noon. Like I said in a previous post, she always …
Our Easter Bunny was a Dust Bunny
Just within the last six months, my 10-year-old finally, officially learned that a giant bunny really doesn’t break into our house every Easter to hide baskets of goodies (seriously, I think if I hadn’t said anything, she’d have held tightly to that belief well into her 20’s), so Easter was a lot more low-key this year. But we still were visited by a bunny, just of a different kind– or I should say, this Easter I re-acquainted myself with the dust bunnies that have taken up permanent residency in my kids’ rooms.
I don’t think the “spring cleaning” urge has hit my kids yet. …