Saturday, March 10, 2012

I did my very best... This time!

I spent the better part of the day today cleaning the house, top to bottom. James was at a conference, and there is no better way to spend a sunny, warm Saturday than cleaning. And when I say "cleaning," I mean CLEAN-ING! I always try to involve Noah, so that means rinsing and stacking the dishes, cleaning picture frames, and cleaning his room.

Today was a particularly hard day to get him to clean his room. I had no problem getting him to do anything else, including mopping. He just didn't want to do clean his room. No matter how much bribing, then threatening, then just full on yelling could get him to clean his room. Finally, I closed the door to his room while he was in there and told him he could only open the door if he was cleaning. He cried. I felt bad. But not bad enough to open the door.

After a couple of minutes, he finally stopped crying, opened the door and said he was ready to clean his room by himself. Fine, I told him.

He came out of his room about five minutes later and pronounced that he was all done. He cleaned his room. I told him I just needed to finish washing the dishes, then I would inspect his room. I asked if he tried his best, and he assured me he did.

"So, if you tried your best, everything is cleaned up, right?"
"Right."
"And that includes the stuff on your bed, right?"
"Uhhhhh. Yeah. But, there might be stuff on my bed still."
"If you tried your best to clean everything, then there shouldn't be anything on your bed."
"Okay."
"But, if you didn't try your best, and you lied to me about trying your best, what should your punishment be?"
"No video games today."
"Sounds like a fair punishment."
*Pause*
"Uh, I better double check to make sure I did my best."

About five minutes later: "I really did my very best this time, mama!" With that assurance, I went to his room, and he really did his very best! Noah cleaned everything. He even took the sheets of his bed.

Apparently, making him choose his own punishment is what "motivates" him to do what is asked of him. Let's see how long this works!

1 comment:

  1. I laughed so hard with this post! Your boy is so smart! Missing you guys so much!

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