Shifts and Changes: part two, sticks

I was messing around on facebook last week, or maybe it was the week before, not doing something I should have been doing, and I stumbled upon Jenny's update about how her stick system was working. How totally intriguing, I thought, and then was launched into reading Bearing Blog's original idea, (if the link doesn't work, which I kind of think it won't, search for Token Economy) and then all the subsequent posts (this link probably won't work either) about how it was playing out. And because I'm a glutton for punishment, I was lulled into thinking it might be an interesting venture.

The whole leviathan of how to get children to do work and what work they should be doing and whether or not they are actually doing the work I gave them to do absorbs a fair portion of my emotional space. There are so many of us in this house. We have so much stuff. I don't handle disorder and clutter well, if at all. It's a potentially toxic situation, especially on those mornings I over sleep my prayer time. Much as it complicates all our lives, the children have to help, lest we all perish.

Also, I've never been good with charts and switching people around. Pretty much you have a job until you are fired or do so well you get promoted. A child begins on shoe putting away, moves up to laundry carrying around, from thence to kitty litter scooping, and finally to the pinnacle, cleaning the whole kitchen. There are some intermediate steps, and you can see that laundry doesn't really factor in at all, and that is a grave problem. For many months I've been pondering the question of laundry and what I hope to achieve, and how I could break it down into manageable bits. Meanwhile I've still just been doing it all myself.

So, the sticks. I drove everyone, well, just Matt, crazy by trying to think it through too many times. Here are the parameters.

For the four oldest, each stick is worth 25 cents. This is a raise, or rather, a potential steady source of income, because now they only get cash on the spot, never exceeding five dollars, for doing someone else's job or an extra job. You have to wait for someone to get sick to be able to do their job, so it's not reliable.

For the two little girls, I will give them ten cents for each stick, but I will try really hard to relieve them of their sticks, since they are so incompetent anyway, and when they leave the money out I will recycle it.

Each stick, this month, is worth four tasks: Bed Made, Chore Done, Clothes Put Away, No Towel on the Floor Ever. I felt that I could probably keep track of four things, maybe. And then we'll add something else each month. Next month, rooms picked up. In the summer time, laundry.

Instead of paying cash for an extra job, a lost stick can be returned or a new one gained.

So, there it is. We've had two days of a fair amount of anxiety on the part of the boys who, when they lose a stick, will probably not be able to deal. Today I'm going to actually walk around the house and try really hard to pull a stick because I think everyone believes in their heart that I'm a sucker. But I really can't afford the amount of money I could potentially lay out every month, so I need to be hard nosed.

And, for a while, I'm going to try calling the baby, who is going to be four next Monday, Eglantine. Elspeth is just not cutting it for me. Eglantine has a really nice sort of ring to it I think. It suits her. And for new readers, these are not their real names. I am crazy, but not that crazy.