Pick it up!!!

Laundry, laundry, laundry... it was always lying around.  My patience with articles of clothing stuffed behind beds, under beds, in beds, and just plain left in the middle of the floor often ran thin.  I tried many solutions to teach the children to put their dirty clothing in their laundry bags in their rooms.  However, one of my boys simply didn't seem to care.

He didn't care if I charged him a quarter per article of clothing.  He was soon broke, and he could no longer pay.

He didn't care if his clothes didn't get washed.  He just wore them dirty.

I finally found a solution that worked from the book Creative Correction by Lisa Whelchel.  Here it is:

"For every article of dirty clothing left on the floor rather then placed in the hamper, have your child make five trips from the place where the clothes were dropped to the washing machine, hamper, or utility room.  The child must pick up the clothes, walk downstairs, put the article in the hamper, take it back out, return to where it had been dropped, drop it in again, pick it up again, and then repeat the cycle.  And a pair of socks counts as two, which makes 10 trips!" (p. 153, 154)

 My son had to go down two flights of stairs from his room on the second floor of our house to the basement where our laundry room is located.  After making 25 trips on several occasions and 65 trips two different times, he started to change his habits.  He had been doing good most of the year.  But I did notice before he left for camp this week that he was falling back into old habits.  I guess he needs a reminder to "Pick it up!"

If you ever need a solution for a behavior issue with your child, I encourage you to invest in Creative Correction.  It is a valuable resource full of extraordinary ideas. My favorite part about it is that it is a practical book based on Scripture for the purpose of imparting Christian values to our children. You just might want to "Pick it up!"