Cleaning House? Bake Cookies!

by Megan

Mommy and Daddy were gone on Friday night, so the kids were keeping house.  I wanted to have the house clean and surprise Mommy when she came home, so I got up on Saturday morning and baked chocolate chocolate chip cookies.  I told everyone that they could have one cookie for every cleaning task they completed.  It worked like a charm!

An hour later, dishes had been washed and the trash was empty.  Toys were put away.  Mirrors, toilets, toasters, sinks, a shower, and the kitchen counters had been cleaned.  Floors and stairs had been swept or vacuumed.  (Ben and Hannah were actually fighting over the vacuum!)  Ben was in tears when he could think of any tasks he could do, and I had to think fast to come up with something.  When they were done, everyone had earned around 5 cookies.  (It's sadly indicative of the state of our house that there was still a lot of work left to be done.)

Just so no one thinks I was being a lazy tyrant, I'll explain myself.  I didn't force anyone to do anything; they could earn as few or as many cookies as they wanted, or they could do absolutely nothing.  It was up to them.  I wasn't doing nothing this whole time.  In fact, I was chaotically busy.  I had to mix up cookies, scoop them, and bake them, while coming up with age-appropriate chores, checking the kids' work, answering their questions, and instructing them on how to clean mirrors and floors.  After that, I had to do a few chores myself, since I wanted some of my own cookies.  I wasn't making others do my work, I was providing positive and effective motivation.  :)