Can I have a job, please?

Can you imagine hearing those words from your 7 year old? Your 8 year old? Your teen-ager? I hear them, seriously. I hear them everyday; usually many times. I am NOT kidding. Right now, as I type, my almost 15 year old is folding 6 loads of laundry for me! And if that’s not enough, how would you like to have clean children’s rooms, all-the-time? Ours are, really! I am no super-mom. I am a mom like any other.  I have my moments when I wonder if I will survive raising four kids, if I spend enough time with them, if I clean too much, or too little, if they will ever look back and resent the choices I’ve made; you name it, I figure I’ve blown it. But a broken clock is still right twice a day, and I had my “right” moment when I created our family’s “Marble Economy”.

It started when my oldest was about three years old. I was a single, teen-aged mom in college, pursuing a career in Early Childhood Special Education. Through my studies I was learning all about child development and how to best stimulate my child’s mind. I knew that watching  television all day was definitely not the best way and I tried to find a way to limit his tube time and my nagging. My first “economy” was a chart on the refrigerator with 6 boxes and six window-cling stickers. Tyler was allowed to watch 30 minutes of television each day for six days a week with one day off. If he chose to watch a movie, he would use up three of his “stickers”. This system worked like a charm. It made my child, not me, responsible for how much time he had for watching. At first, Tyler would watch a movie on Monday and Tuesday and then be frustrated all week, waiting for his 6 squares to “reset”. But he quickly learned to “budget” his time, to keep from running out. Brilliant, eh?

Fast forward seven years, a husband, and three more kids. Our system was somehow lost along the way and I found myself back in the world of “Why can’t I watch another movie? ” whining. Not only that, but I was having a hard time getting my kids to help out around the house. (You simply MUST have help and cooperation from the kids when you have as many as I do.)  Remembering the effectiveness of my old system I dragged it out of my mental closet, tweaked it a bit and created what I now affectionately call our “Marble Economy”.

The concept is simple; my children get marbles for doing jobs around the house and they “spend” them on screen time: TV, computer, wii etc. One marble equals 15 minutes. A job well done is rewarded with bonus marbles. Simple as that. We have one additional rule, however, and I simply adore this one; they cannot spend marbles unless their room is clean. Love it? I sure do. I no longer have to argue with my kids about how much TV they watch. I don’t have to nag about clean rooms. The rules are set, the concept is simple. The ball is in their court. It simply doesn’t get any better than that.

I think that beyond the wonders of having your children ask for “work”, beyond the joys of having clean rooms and no nagging, beyond having kids who don’t spend their whole day in front of a screen, the real reward is having kids learn that privileges and recreation are earned, not an entitlement. They know that time and work are worth something. They know that a job well done is better rewarded than a half-hearted quick-fix. It really has changed the tenor (and cleanliness) of our home, as well as the homes of many of my friends who now have “Marble Economies” of their own. Give it a try; it is worth every penny, er, marble.

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