Yesterday, I picked him up from school at 2:30 and had him start cleaning as soon as we got home. By bedtime, his room was still a mess. I told him that anything that was left on the floor and not put up in a bin or drawer at bedtime would be taken away tomorrow. He didn't believe me.
Now, we have tried just about everything else. We've helped him clean. We've given him clear directions and a goal "put all of the trains in this bin" or "have this bin full by the time I come to check on you" "put all of the stuffed animals on your bed", etc. We have rewarded, when he is cleaning, with what our strong-willed parenting class called "attending." We have rewarded with a sticker chart. We have rewarded by offering for him to stay up late and watch a TV show he wanted to see. We have taken things away -- no stories at bedtime, no TV, shower instead of a bath, etc. We've tried time-outs and even spanking. Nothing seems to work!
So, once I got home from taking him to school today, I started cleaning his room. Anything left on the floor and not put away got packed up to take to our storage building in the back yard. Before you feel sorry for him, notice all of the toys still in his room. These are the ones he put away, so he got to keep them. The rest is in the pile in front of the china cabinet.
I'm not sure that this will work either. I'm not sure he'll even notice that anything is missing until he starts to look for it. I think on first glance Conall will just think I cleaned his room and he got out of having to do it. But, we had to try something else. I really hope it works. More later.
Here's all the stuff I packed up. Hard to believe ALL of that was on the floor, isn't it?
His bed after I cleaned the room
His clean room!
All the toys he has left
More toys left
And don't forget he has the storage drawers under his bed!I bet everyone remembers these pictures the next time they think about buying Conall a toy!
1 comment:
You go Mom!!!
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