First, because it wasn’t working. Let’s be honest, if hearing more of my voice was what actually produced results in my children, things would have changed a LONG time ago. But nothing was changing. I was griping about the same things, over and over.
And not big things. Not even “don’t bite your brother” level stuff. Small stuff. Like close the front door when you come in. Take your plates to the counter. Turn off lights if you see them on. That kind of stuff. Easy stuff. I kept nagging, and they kept ignoring me.
So much fun for everyone. *insert eye roll*
Second, because I stumbled onto a better way. It’s our marble jar, and it has worked brilliantly. There is a Start jar with 65 marbles in it* and a Lost jar into which marbles go. On Sunday, all the marbles go into the Start jar. All week long, I move marbles any time I have to do one of the things that they are supposed to remember. On Sunday morning, I count the marbles left in the Start jar and they earn a (collective) reward. Rewards are based on tens (20-29 left earns an extra screen time, 60-65 left earns a family dinner out, etc.)
And things are SO much better, y’all. Seriously. They are working together. They remind each other (kindly, even). They help each other. They WANT to keep those marbles. Every time, they hear a marble move, they stop right.that.second to ask why.
But best of all, I have stopped nagging almost entirely. And it is glorious.
*The number is mostly random. That was the number of marbles I had. We may actually drop the number soon because things are going so well…
October 4, 2017
That’s an awesome idea