So....have you ever walked around your house to find toys, shirts, socks, puzzle pieces, lego figures, paper, and crayons just flung all over?! It's pretty much a daily occurrence at our house. We ask nicely for it to get picked up, we ask nicely again, we set it on the stairs and inch it up to the kids' rooms, we ask firmly....and then asking, telling, threatening to give it away, etc....just gets plain old! So....I confiscated all their junk belongings.
I'm not gonna lie. I feel like I am turning into my mother here. She told me this would happen someday. Don't tell her I'm admitting to finally understanding what she was talking about!
But....here's a trick that I did not get from my mother to fix this problem! I actually got it from a Pinterest pinner. If you see this post, and know who that person is, I'd love to give her credit. She had a bunch of brilliant ideas....including this one!
Meet: The Job Jar
Inside the job jar are a variety of.....you guessed it! JOBS! In order to claim an item back, the owner must complete a job. Here's the rules:
1. Choose one job
2. Complete it correctly
3. Siblings may not do a job for another sibling.
4. Only the owner may complete the task in order to get their belongings back.
5. No job, no item!
6. Un-claimed items will periodically be donated to Goodwill. Advance warning/notice may or may not be given. Parents will not commit to remembering to advise children when they are sick of looking at a full confiscation box of junk belongings.
As you will see, some jobs are easy, some are not. Some require more time than others, and some are simply silly tasks because, well.....they're kids, and we all make mistakes! Everyone enjoys getting off the hook once in awhile! However, most of the jobs are truly service jobs that carry multiple agendas: they benefit our home and other family members, as well as teach responsibility and dole out consequences that might make you remember to listen the first time!!
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