The magic of logical consequences

The other day my children decided to play the game "Tangled" in J and O's room. For Christmas M received a Tangled wig so they play this make believe game a lot. Well in the movie Rapunzel paints all over her walls because she can't leave the tower so what else is she to do, right? Can you tell where this story is going? So while they are playing "Tangled" the kids have this brilliant idea to color all over the walls in J's room!

After the walls are beautifully decorated, my husband walks into the room to check on the kiddos and sees all the crayon on the walls and when he asks them who was responsible the older two point to O and said he did it. Of course they blamed the 2 year old! My husband takes them at face value and starts disciplining O while M and J sit by and watch. I have yet to see the room and am thinking it is just a little bit of coloring . . .

While we are eating dinner J then tells us that he has to be honest and says that he also colored on the wall. M then fesses up as well. I am curious now about the coloring so I go back and look and it is blatantly obvious that it was not the 2 yr old! Those stars are just a little too perfect, the word welcome on the door . . . I mean really the 2 yr old can't even draw a circle on purpose! Not only did I see who was responsible I was shocked at how much they colored on the wall, the doors, the dresser, and even the ceiling! I asked my husband if he actually looked at the coloring because then he would have known exactly who did it! We expressed to our children that we were very disappointed in them and that they would no longer be allowed to play in their rooms or have any art supplies anywhere but the kitchen.

M's a people pleaser BIG TIME and all I had to tell her was that I was disappointed and she was devastated where as the boys just thought it was fun. So I knew I needed a discipline for them to really understand that what they did was wrong. Well every Saturday we have a family fun day where we take our kids out for some fun activities and they have really come to look forward to this special time on Saturdays. So I decided that for family fun day the kids would have to scrub the crayons off of the wall, which is next to impossible with just soap and water.

Yesterday was the big day and when the kids woke up they came running in to our room and were anxious to find out what we were going to do for family fun day! I told them I had a big surprise for them and that they would find out after breakfast. While they were eating I started filling up a bowl with some dish soap and water and got out 3 washcloths. M is quick and the minute she saw what I was doing said, "Oh great we have to clean the crayon off the walls!" I was a little proud at that moment that she knew what the consequence was going to be, we do a lot of logical consequences at our house.

After breakfast I gathered the kids into J and O's room and handed them each a washcloth and told them that before we could have fun they had to get the crayon off the walls. In the beginning they thought it would be great fun, but after ten minutes of scrubbing the same spot and not having that crayon budge one bit they started getting frustrated. I left them to the cleaning while I ran to Walmart to pick up some magic erasers, because that is really the best and easiest way to get crayons off the walls. When I came back my husband told me that the kids were extremely frustrated and were repeatedly vowing that they would NEVER color on a wall again. After I gave them the magic erasers and worked with them the crayon was completely gone in fifteen minutes and we were able to have a fun family day.

I loved that I decided to not give them the easy way to clean it first, but instead had them struggle and work hard with no results. This way they learned that while it is fun to color on the walls it is not fun to clean up those walls and therefore are less likely to make that choice again.

Motivational Mondays: Get Motivated to clean your house!

A while ago a friend of mine posted on her blog about cleaning her house and all that she does to keep it clean. In the post she mentioned a website called Motivated Moms where you can purchase a house cleaning schedule. After a few months of thinking about it I decided to buy the schedule and I am so glad I did! The schedule is perfect if you get overwhelmed with house cleaning like I often do and if you like checking things off of your to-do list which I also love to do! After purchasing the list I wanted I printed out the pages and then laminated each of them so I could re-use the lists. Every Sunday I put the list of things to do for the new week on my fridge and as I go about my chores I mark them off the list. On the list it has daily chores such as running the dishwasher, wiping down the kitchen and bathroom counters, sweeping the kitchen and entry way floors, etc. Then it breaks down the bigger chores like scrubbing toilets and showers into different days of the week. It even as a spot on there for clipping your kids nails - it's every Wednesday! I love this chart and I feel like cleaning my house isn't such an overwhelming task anymore. Every morning after I drop M off to school I have about 2.5 hours before I have to pick her up so I work really hard at getting J and O to help me get as much done on the list as quickly as we can so we can have time to play the rest of the day. For me if I get my cleaning done first thing in the morning I am much more likely to keep up on it throughout the day and my kids are more likely to clean up after themselves as well! Sometimes I even call up my friends and chat away while I clean or blare the music really loud and jam out while I clean which is a great way to stay motivated and get the work done quickly!

I have some friends who clean a little differently, they will clean one major room per day for example, bathrooms on tuesday, kitchen on wednesday, mopping on thursdays, etc. and if that works for you great! But this way it is a little bit each day and I don't feel like my days are spent following my kids around and cleaning up after them. I highly recommend you checking out the motivated mom's website and take back your free time!

Do you have other tips on keeping your house clean?