Seriously Amazing.
I’m sitting here with a towl wrapped around me – red faced, sweating, stinking to high-heaven….I just did 30 minutes on the eliptical machine. It started out with me chanting, “I hate exercise. I hate exercise. I hate exercise.” It’s been kind of my mantra. And somewhere along the line I figured that particular phrase was probably not really motivating me to continue on and so I switched to saying all the positive phrases about why I liked exercising…..which was difficult to to at first without lying…..and then once I figured out that I am happy with what exercise is doing for my body, and what it’s doing for my heart and what it’s doing for my weight….that kind of stuff – then if got marginally easier to figure out positive things to say.
I mamanged to make it all the way through without stopping and then got ready to really enjoy my shower……except that there is no hot water. NONE! and weve not done anything today to use it all up. So, I got to check the water heater aaaaaaaaaaaaand…it was off. Somehow, last night it must have gone out and so now I’m sitting here in my own funk just stewing for the next 20 minutes until I can deal with my bad self.
We have a Professioanl Day today – You should be so lucky. The best part of the day is that the kids have signed onto this card system for chores and it’s working so fabulously. Mind you, they are definately my children and have gotten carried away this morning with the “details” of setting the system up. So far this morning, they’ve spent a ton of time getting ready to do the chores and are only just now starting to get the actual chores done.
BUT….last weekend….the kids cleaned the house and all it’s going to cost me is tickets to a movie for the family. That’s some seriously sweet and cheap maid service for ya.
Question for you – How do YOU motivate your kids to pitch in and help around the house?
My kids have to earn their TV & games time. Certain chores and length of those chores earns them a certain amount of TV time. If they do no chores…. they get no electronic entertainment. If they go above and beyond the call of duty, they either get a monetary reward or a date night out, a one on one kind of thing with either me or Daddy. They always go for the date over the money. 🙂 Time is truly worth more!!!
Diesel doesn’t do ANYTHING. Lazy bum.
LOL Debbie!
Jason is a pretty good motivator, his way or the highway! hehe
we have tried several reward programs, mostly I don’t stick with it being the ever random person that I am 🙂 but I tend to think they have to help clean the house because they live here and we all get to help out, it’s part of being a family!
We used to use stickers, but our children are 4 and 6, so that probably wouldn’t work for your girls as they are older. Just the other night after dinner, my husband and I said that he bbqued the burgers, I helped prepare the fixings, one child had to clear the food and the other the dishes. It actually went well considering it had been ages since they had their turn at “dish duty” (which is clearing the table for a thomas train sticker). As for other chores like putting laundry away…we have a chart with 24 squares and each time they put their clothes away they get a sticker. When the chart is full, we go to Purdy’s Chocolates and they get their reward, an ice cream cone with a topping. I get one too ;0) We all (me and kids) get a kid sized cone for just over $5. Not bad!
What I meant was we used to use stickers for helping clear the table, but we havn’t done that for awhile. Their reward for dishes was a sticker from our book of over 600 Thomas stickers. I don’t think children should be rewarded for all chores because we are a family and we work together.
We still use stickers (not any special sticker) for “Laundry Games”. I always have called it “Laundry Games” not chores to make it fun! Ashleigh and Justin have been putting their clothes away for almost 2 years now! We first started with a chart of 18 squares to work toward their “Ice Cream Treat” and gradually increased it over the last 2 years.
Sorry my comments were so long ;0)