Saturday, April 16, 2005

So how do you get YOUR kids to put away clothes?

We had a battle this morning about doing chores. Included in it was putting away their clean clothes. I hung everything that was out of reach and told them to put away the rest. The consequence of not doing their chores was not having friends over to play today. That apparently made no impact. Getting ready to go to dinner, they decided that "putting away" was dumping in the floor all of the previously folded and sorted stacks of clothes. I went in and supervised while they refolded (as best they could) and put away. I *think* I've come up with a solution for the next time this particular problem happens. My son is already very fond of getting money, taking away from him he really doesn't like. So. Next time they won't put away their clothes like I asked in a reasonable amount of time, I'll charge a quarter ($.25) for each piece of clothing I have to put away for them. Note: I don't ask them to do it very often and when I do the stacks are relatively small, already folded, and sorted, to save them the trouble. A 5 minute chore if they go ahead and do it. We'll see if my newest consequence works.

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