Claire received a pillow pet for Christmas. And she loved it. Loved it. Loved, loved, loved it. Fast forward a month or so and you'll find us perusing the aisles in our grocery store. This store has started carrying pillow pet pee wees. These little darlings are about 1/4 the size of the original pillow pets. I knew immediately that Claire would want one. I knew this because ever since she was old enough to hold on to a stuffed animal, she has been obsessed with all things mommy and baby. If she has a stuffed animal, rest assured it has a mommy or baby somewhere in her collection. Sometimes they are similar in nature. For example she has two little stuffed kittens who play mommy and baby to one another. Other times, the combo is more on the odd side. Take her baby giraffe/mommy elephant combo for example.
So back to these pee wees. I knew that Claire was going to want to have the matching baby purple unicorn to go with her "mommy" purple unicorn. It didn't take Claire long to spot them and begging to commence. I took a quick look at the price tag and knew immediately that I wasn't going to be buying one of these things for Claire. They cost $12.99. That is a mere seven dollars less expensive than the original, 4-times larger version. I just couldn't do it. But of course, Claire was insistent. So I recommended that we create a list of jobs for her to do around the house. She could earn some money and save up for this baby pillow pet. Immediately, Claire was on board. She ran over to the pile of pet pee wees and grabbed a baby unicorn. She snuggled it close to her cheek and I heard her sweet voice say, "Don't worry baby. I am going home to work hard and make some money so I can buy you! Your mommy will be so happy to see you when I bring you home!" I must admit, that melted my heart. Too bad for Claire that it didn't even begin to thaw my resolve.
So we created a list of chores.
1) Make your bed.
2) Dress yourself.
3) Bring your night time cup downstairs and put it in the sink.
4) Put your coat, shoes and dirty clothes where they belong.
5) Clean the playroom each night before bed.
Immediately I nerded out and my inner teacher took control. I put all these items on a chart in picture form and taped it to the inside of Claire's bedroom door.
For weeks I never heard one argument from Claire about her jobs. She was such a happy little worker. She was thrilled that she could make her bed and happy as a lark to dress herself. Every morning, I'd be downstairs reading or working on something and I would look up and see a very happy Claire be-bopping into the kitchen. She'd be fully clothed and tossing her cup into the sink. She was ready to face the day. It was awesome and I was questioning why I didn't start this sooner.
Each Friday we have a payday of sorts. She earns 3 dollars each week. (one dollar per year of life) 30 cents gets put aside for God, and the rest goes in her piggy bank to save for her precious baby pillow pet.
When the day of purchase finally came, I have never seen this little girl so excited. We headed to the store and made her purchase and she was on cloud nine.
Mommy and baby now united, Claire suddenly announces that she no longer needs to save money and thus no longer needs to perform her jobs. Sigh. This is where the real work begins I suppose. I find the nicest way possible to explain to her that once you prove that you are capable of doing jobs independently, you really can never go back. Not in our house at least. And that like it or not, her jobs were going to continue. She might as well start to think of the next thing she wanted to save up to buy.
We had several weeks of a reluctant worker. But she is finally about half way back to where we were before. She will do her jobs without complaining once more, but she no longer does them without being prompted. Oh well. Better than nothing I suppose.
Her most recent purchase sent her piggy bank balance back to zero. But her love of this little creature has reignited her desire to earn money.
She has now informed me that she is saving to buy the movie Milo and Otis. I don't even know if that movie is still being sold anywhere. Guess I better start looking online.
I am happy she is starting to make goals. And I am also happy that she has yet to figure out that the money she earns could possibly buy her candy. That's a battle I am not quite ready to fight.
Alright, I'd better go do my chores. Too bad I don't get a weekly allowance for mine. Because I know FULL WELL that my money could purchase candy and that knowledge would definitely thaw my resolve in that realm.
5 comments:
Okay, I love that you used painter's tape to affix your nerdy teacher chart. A high five to you on your foresightedness.
We've had the same debate on the chores thing around here and I know it's coming back this summer. Last summer, Tyler became responsible for making his bed and getting dressed before coming downstairs in the morning. We amended that to not include schools days on the bed, or we would be late every day.
I think I've come to the conclusion that when I start giving allowance (which I SO haven't yet - cheap!!), it will be less than a dollar a year, but not have chores tied to it. If Tyler doesn't do his chores, he is punished in some way. (Ex - when he didn't make his bed and lied about it, he got to make my bed and Parker's bed for a week too.) But then I like them being able to earn money for a special purchase through additional, maybe larger chores. Like cleaning my....fill in the blank. Ha!
Did you want a whole blog post from me on this topic, really? 'Cause I've given this a lot of thought and could keep going...
HAHA! Pigs you win the award for the longest comment ever! And a dollar a year? Poor guy. I guess if he isn't trying to save up for something then it isn't a big deal. I have found that letting Claire earn her own spending money has saved me lots of begging at the store. When she sees something she wants, I just say, well . . . . you have your money. Do you want ______ or do you want to continue to save for ________? That shuts her down fast!
I LOVE that Claire is earning an allowance and saving for her own purchases. You won't remember it, but you and David did the same thing. And it does cut down on the begging. As for the candy...that's what Mimi's are for!
We are starting Cameron on a chore chart...basically for all the same reasons you did with Claire. :-) But, we are going to have him put 10 percent into savings as well as 10 percent into tithe. Hopefully, this will teach him better habits than Luke and I have. ;-)
We are way cheaper. We pay 10 cents a chore and that adds up to about 2 dollars a week. This doesn't really motivate Joshua so we had to add punishment but I wasn't about to pay them more! :)
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