I don't know about you, but one of the best parenting tips I got was to "catch them in the act of being good".
By "them", I mean our children!
We have tried to make a point of doing this throughout our children's lives. I'll admit, sometimes we have been forgetful or too tired to notice their act of kindness. But we have tried.
Another thing people may or may not know about our family is that we do not pay our kids an allowance for doing chores. In our eyes, doing chores is what makes you part of our family and it is a privilege to serve one another.
However, we do pay for extra things like cleaning out gutters, washing windows, running your brother to school a half hour away...things that are not everyday occurrences like laundry, dishes, cleaning bathrooms, vacuuming...
Recently, I was noticing that my girls were going through a bit of a bad attitude in regards to helping out with the everyday parts of life. Now, we are pulling out of a period in our lives when they spent a TON of time and energy helping me run the house because my health was so bad. We really appreciated them and were so thankful for their willing hearts in this matter. However, now that I have been back to running things full time again over the past few months, there have been some negative attitudes popping up. I have prayed and prayed about it and wondered how I could encourage my young ladies to make sure they were having a servant's heart in regards to their family.
Enter Target. I know, right? How can a store play a part in this? I rarely go to Target. It's in the next town over and it's not a place I specifically make a point to drive to. This particular day Peter and I decided to take a couple kiddos and do some shopping in this town. We entered Target and I stopped by the card section. I LOVE sending cards to people and I feel drawn to the card section of any store. As I was looking through the cards, I found some Easter "tokens". I think they were meant to be put in Easter cards or baskets as treats for children, but my brain started working. I thought about how we needed to make sure we were in the habit of "catching our kiddos in the act of being good". I thought, what if I gave them a "Kudos Token" when I "caught" them??
So, I purchased a couple, here is what they look like:
Here is how it works:
When Peter or I catch the kids in an act of service or having a great attitude when asked to do a much-dreaded chore, I come up to them and give them a token. I name what it was they did and let them know how much we appreciate their act of service or attitude.
They then can turn in the token at any point as long as they are in good standing with us. In other words, if they don't have screen time privileges, they can't turn in the "One Extra Hour Of Screen Time".
The difference has been amazing! We don't do it every time or even every day. But they are back to looking for acts of service to do around the house and for each other. And we are making sure we look for these nuggets of loveliness in our children!
If you missed last week's post: Living Gluten-Free in a Fast Food World
Until next time...
Have a blessed day and embrace the craziness in your life!
Heidi
Numbers 6:24-26
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Heidi