logical consequences

This morning we were really mean and Wendy would be so proud of us. We discovered that none of the kids living at home did their zones except for Scott who only has to shovel the deck when it snows. We are not very demanding when it comes to requiring our kids to work. They each get a chore that takes them about 10 minutes tops to do each day. Emptying trashes, unloading the dishwasher, simple things that make the household run easier.

When we discovered that we were going to spend the day in a very messy house that all the children had left in the morning without any regard, Dave and I started to brainstorm on what would get the kids' attention. We talked about moving all their mattresses to the front porch and making them clean to earn their bed's back. We considered grounding everyone and taking away all the electronics in the house (Tvs, video games, computers etc.) We thought about moving ALL the kids into one room at the end of the basement and making them all live in that one room and eat in the basement kitchen and not letting them go into the rest of the house and spend time. (the staying in one room would have been pretty painful for some of the kids) Finally Dave decided to take all the electronics and to put remnants of the unfinished jobs on the kids' beds with a sign. The worst was the trash cans on Devin's bed (It will actually be a really good incentive for him to wash his bedding :) Daniel got a bedful of clean dishes that he forgot to unload and Spencer got a closet full of coats and gloves that he keeps stashinng on the floor of the closet instead of putting them away.

The kids were ticked when they got home. Tonight's FHE will be kind of fun as Dave discusses AGAIN what we expect. Maybe now they will listen a little more carefully.