Free cleaning

I get my basement bathroom cleaned today for free and without complaint!

Matt missed the bus this morning and he knows the rules--if I have to drive anything (homework, lunch, child who missed the bus) to school because someone wasn't prepared or wasn't watching the clock, I charge $5 for the drive over. He apologized and immediately asked "What jobs should I do when I get home from school?" I didn't yell (I did when certain older children were younger and I had to haul the younger children--who were even younger--out of bed and affix them into various car seats, younger children who didn't WANT to be hauled out of bed and strapped in. Am I ashamed of yelling? Maybe a little, but if I hadn't, certain older children would not have believed that they needed to be more responsible. Matt needs no yelling from me to realize that he had dropped his own ball of responsibility), I just said that he could clean the downstairs bathroom as payment.

I almost wish the kids would miss the bus more often. The kitchen sink needs deodorizing and the garbage cans need scrubbing.

Comments

Shantel said…
I LOVE LOVE LOVE this Sara. I am stealing it. ;0)
September 14, 2009 at 9:57 AM
Shoebox Princess said…
Go right ahead and steal! Then bask in the joy of having the kids clean something!
September 14, 2009 at 9:58 AM
Shoebox Princess said…
PS. I've found that charging $5 somehow frees me from being angry. Even though I made up this particular consequence, I have let the consequence do the work of being mad for me. I felt nothing but calmness as I strapped fake child into her car seat to take Matt to school.
September 14, 2009 at 10:03 AM
Jenni said…
Fair trade, I'd say. And it was nice that at this point, everyone knows the rules of the game, how it is played, and who wins!
September 14, 2009 at 10:13 AM
Shoebox Princess said…
You know my motto for raising kids, Jen: "I win all arguments."
September 14, 2009 at 10:17 AM
Jen said…
Ditto on so stealing this idea for children missing the bus. Annie missed only once last year because she came back to the house to get a pencil she had borrowed or had gotten as a gift (can't remember which) from someone in her class. I must say I was quite angry with her especially when it made Mimi late for school as well. I wrote her teacher a nasty note stating that Annie is never to receive gifts or borrow from classmates. Ugh, I was so mad!!
September 14, 2009 at 3:15 PM
Micah said…
I'm going to have to remember this one. Very good idea. I think too many moms didn't do this and that's why some people in this country want a free bailout.
September 16, 2009 at 4:26 PM
mastubz said…
One time I had to take a forgotten paper to school for Emily to receive her 8th grade graduation robe (lame). I begged the school to let her have it without the signed form - no can do. So I had to unload enough sod which had been picked up earlier and was waiting to be laid from the back of our dippy truck and drive up to the school (couldn't drive the truck that far with truckbed on the axles). Needless to say, I was miffed at said child, so miffed that when she got home I made her pick the ripe plums off the tree and make them into jam - without asking me a single question. "Just read the directions and figure it out while I lay the rest of this sod." We laugh about it now and call the jam "I am so made at you plum jam."
September 16, 2009 at 9:05 PM
meg.. said…
Lovin' this! What a great idea. Just might have to institute that one here. Kids have never missed the bus, but have forgotten lunches/library books/homework/etc. enough to make it worth it.
September 17, 2009 at 2:15 PM
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