Naughty land

When my baby sister, Joanna, was a young toddler I would give her baths when my parents were out of town (I am 8 years older than her). She loved baths, and it was really hard to get her out (I of course did everything I could to keep her from crying). So a solution I thought up was to turn the vent on and pretend it was a monster. It worked like a charm. She was scared enough to get out of the water quickly, but she still had fun with it. I am pretty sure that she has not lasting damage from it either (I could be wrong...only time will tell).

I am the type of Mom that bribes, or threatens. I usually do a combo if I want fast results. Lately I have been trying to get Audrey to do chores (pick up the diapers scattered EVERYWHERE in our house, help me with the dishwasher, and keep her room clean). She gets a quarter every Saturday if she does a pretty good job throughout the week (I obviously am taking advantage of the fact that she thinks its a lot of money). She picks up the diapers really well, and she is pretty good about unloading her dishes out of the dishwasher (as long as I remind her to do it), but she is really bad about keeping her room clean, in fact I swear it has gotten messier. She will cry and cry and beg me to help her and when I do she lays on the ground and watches me clean. She is always "too bored" or "too tired" to clean. So in the hopes of getting her to help me clean her room I invented a song called "Naughty land" (I have the very useful talent of being able to make up with songs on the spot, Audrey LOVES my songs...Travis hates them). I sung the song in a raspy shouty rocker voice and tried to make Naughty land sound like a scary place (think Pinocchio), I told her that if she was naughty they would come pick her up in a bus and take her to naughty land. She loved the idea of riding in a bus (a big oops on my part) and she totally was fascinated by it. Despite my efforts, she did not clean up her room, and she wants to go to Naughty land. Talk about major backfire.

So I came up with a new plan. Stick her toys in her closet and lock them in there...until she is willing to pick them up after she is done playing with them. She didn't seem to mind, and now I don't have to clean her room.