Getting Smarter

I'd like to think that I get smarter as I get older. When it comes to raising kids you are always thinking of different ways to get them to do their chores. Some parents are lucky and have kids who do them with no problemo. Well this summer we were struggling with the kids and getting them to do everything. I had the idea to create a "store". They can earn fake money with things they do and then they can spend that fake money on a list of things I made. Brilliant, right? Here's the thing. The older kids loved it and really understand and want to earn money. Parker.....not so much.

See what I mean? Parker has nothing in there. Sad? Don't worry we are a little easier on him and that day he had just had all his money taken away because he was BAD. Same day I called Luke to come home. Some of the other things I have on there is a snowcone, slurpee, trip to the $ store, date with just Mom, or Date with just Dad, ice cream, trip to the pet store by yourself,stay up 30 min later, 30 min of Xbox. They have so many ways to earn money. Make bed in morning, brush teeth morning and night, clean room, no fighting, help mom, dust, vacuum stairs and so on.

When you have kids of all different ages you have to think of stuff that will motivate everyone. No wonder my parents were so easy going on my younger siblings. They were so exhausted from thinking of ways to make us behave and to do our things that when it came to my 2 younger ones they were out of ideas and tired.

So one of the things you could spend your money on was a date with Mom and Dad. Nick was determined to get that one. So he saved up his money for a couple of weeks and finally was able to go.It was so nice to have one on one time with him. Since he is the oldest and had to deal with so many babies coming so fast into this family, he really needed this. We had a lot of fun. He requested spaghetti so we chose to go to California Pizza Kitchen. We hardly ever take our kids out to eat. With 4 kids who now eat their own meal it gets so expensive and also since our kids aren't used to it they act crazy. I can handle it more than Luke can. Nick thought it was the greatest that we were eating out at a restaurant.
 
 

They brought him a free sundae for his birthday.
 
 
 
After that we went school shopping for him. It's so much easier going school shopping with just 1 kid.
We had a lot of fun, and he is already saving up for another date with us.

 By far this has been the best system that has worked for my kids. I love it and it's helping them a lot with their math skills too.