The Update: End of Month Two

Okay fellow frustrated parents, here is the update on The System after two months! 

The system itself is still in place and two months for anything around here is world record so for that I am proud. I will say that the enthusiasm level has decreased and the dings have crept up this month. We are close to pay day though and it is funny how each angel was checking the calendar this afternoon and counting their dings to see what extra chores could be picked up to nullify their deficit. I am not sure that all will be even, but I love the effort. 

Struggles

My youngest angel is, as expected, struggling the most. She is built like her mama so I totally get the lack of attention to detail (the hardest part of this system is ME remembering to check everything). I am not an organized, together mom and my baby girl is her mother's daughter. It has given us great opportunities to talk about procrastination and organization. She is still working on a system that works to help her remember, but she is not defeated and for that I am thankful. My fear was that she would be so far behind her sisters that she would toss her hands up. We have stressed that this is not a competition, but I worried it would become one anyway. So far, so good. 

Adjustments

We made one adjustment after our first month. We had asked each girl to walk a dog each day (3 girls, 3 dogs) for 20 minutes. That proved to be too much the first month so we adjusted and let them walk the dogs 4 times a week for 30 minutes a walk. This way they can look at  their schedules and decide which days work for them. They also learned this month they have to look at the weather as well. If you asked any of them what chore they would give up it would be the dog walking, but it gets them and the pooches out and moving so I don't see this chore going away, but being the model of flexibility that we are...we adjusted. 

The System in Action

 A couple of weeks ago we had middle of the week spend the night company. We never do this, but a friend needed some help while she was out of town. The morning before school was kind of crazy and when I got home I noticed that the youngest's room was a mess. Her bed had been tossed up, but other than that, it was a mess. My first thought was, "Well, we did have a crazy morning". Then I went in the other girls' rooms. They were clean and all the other morning chores had been done. So I went back to baby girl's room. I cleaned it up....the way I like to clean it! Then I wrote the ding on the calendar. Now, if this was pre-system days I would have cleaned it up and then shown her the room after school proclaiming how this would be the last time I would be doing that for her (really...how many last times have I proclaimed in her short 10 years?). Instead, I did what I really wanted to do deep inside which was clean that mess up, and she took a consequence for it. Win-Win!

One other cool thing that happened this month was that a friend of Emma Kate's had a birthday party that asked for donations instead of a gift. She was able to use her charity money for that party. She was so excited to give "her" money to that cause. Love that!

If you ask the girls on any given day and they hate the system, but ask them on pay day and it's the greatest thing ever! I even got a text from my 14 year old asking if this was pay week. This is worth all the moaning and groaning. We are making baby steps!

Let me know how you have adapted this system for your house and any ideas that you find that work!