Being a parent is hard! It doesn’t matter how many kids you have, how old they are, or their age difference, it is hard work! As parents it’s impossible to be on our A game 100% of the time. Recently, I have felt the level of chaos in my home to be more than a reasonable amount.  I was having to say “take a shower” 150 times BEFORE my children would do it. By the end of the day I probably repeated myself 1 million times (that’s not an exaggeration). I was beginning to loose my bloody mind and by bedtime I was straight Monster Mom because seriously WHY DON’T THEY LISTEN?! I actually take responsibility for this madness because I had become weak. I had become tired. I had allowed them to respond with “one sec” or “this game is almost over” or “we can finally play outside, it’s not 100 degrees” too many times. I needed to regain control over my children. Take back what was mine.

I have found over the last 13 years that yelling and punishing are not always effective. Long ago we used marble jars to reward good behavior. My little toddlers would earn a marble for being good listeners and doing what was right. When they reached a certain level on their jar, they earned a prize! It worked wonders! Apparently, my 10 1/2 and 7 year olds needed this reinstated.  This week I decided to bust out the marble jars. I also realized that mornings and bedtime are the most chaotic parts of our day.  With their help we wrote down our routines for those times of day. SURPRISE! They actually know what they are supposed to do.  Funny because on most days they act like they’ve never gotten ready for school a day in their life. hmmmmmm….  These 2 simple additions to our family have  transformed our home. Now all I say is “look at your list, have you done everything on it?” I don’t have to tell them 501 times to brush their teeth or hang up their towel. They go through their list. They check off each item. They put a marble in their jar for each completed task. They are happy because they are working towards football gear, a Harry Potter Wand, and cash. I am happy because they are doing what they are supposed to do without 27 reminders. It’s glorious!