Expectation Chart = Obedience

We figured it was time for the kids to begin earning allowances (at least the two older ones anyway) so Misty went to the store and procured a simple dry erase chore chart that we now prominently display on the refrigerator door. Amazing that just today we began setting chores for the kids and to our collective amazement the children immediately began to fall in line. Chores for the boys are relatively simple but definitely show cognitive ability beyond our wildest hopes. Non-negotiable responsibilities are as follows: make bed, put dishes in the dishwasher, clean up toys. Bonus responsibilities include being nice to each other/no timeouts for the day, eating dinner promptly.

I can proudly say that both boys were 5 for 5 today. Amazing what putting the key responsibilities on paper and objectively measuring performance against the expectations will get you...or is it? I spend most of my day finding ways to inspect what I expect from my job. Children are no different from adults in this respect it seems. Individuals will continuously push the envelope as far as they can until someone pushes back. Our push back today was to employ an expectation chart. For my job it is done with spreadsheets but the principle is the same. Tell people the metrics against which they will be measured and then actually measure them.

The payoff for the boys: we agreed to pay them each $1 per week if they receive checks for the non-negotiables. The bonus adds an additional TBD amount at the discretion of the parents that is subjective and depends perhaps most importantly on how much cash Daddy has in his wallet at the end of the week.

Antonio wants to save his money for more Playmobil figurines. He loves checking off the boxes at the end of the day. He is a trail-blazing rule-following excited little boy who can't wait to do what is expected of him to earn both praise and check marks. Angelo wants to ensure that he has at least as many checks as Antonio. Any questions, see earlier post titled "Making Sibling Rivalry Work for You."