Taking the stress out of your life

This one is for those of you with children.

I know sometimes it is difficult to get children to clean their rooms and help with housework around the house.  Children of all ages need a lot of praise and encouragement to perform these tasks willingly, without your having to remind them several times.

I am going to give you some ideas of how to do this.  I would like any of you who have any other ideas to email me your ideas, to CommentsToMe@AllAboutMS.ca.  I will post those ideas to share with others.

Rent the movie “Peter Pan”  by Disney or read the story to your children.  After watching the movie, reading the book, or telling the story explain to them that Tinker Bell is going to start visiting them everyday, but they will never see Tinker Bell.  Buy some gold or silver glitter, this will be your Tinker Bell dust.

Tell them that Tinker Bell will leave them some Tinker Bell Dust and a surprise whenever they clean their room, make their bed, perform a chore around the house, etc

You are going to become Tinker Bell.

You could also buy a scrap book or photo album to keep all the notes in  Write a note about the surprises that they received and place it in the scrap book.  Take pictures of what they have done for the scrap book.  Keep this scrap book with your children.  Make it a family time each night before bedtime.  Be sure to date everything.  You must be careful to be age appropriate with your surprises.  Older children benefit from this also.  You have to be honest in your praise.

This may sound time consuming and yes it is.  This will pay off in the end.  Because in time your children will be doing some of the work that you used to do.  Time and effort spent now will be a benefit later.

If you have older and younger children you can enlist the older ones to be Tinker Bell.

All of you can have a lot of fun with this.

Surprises can be: a gift, a note of encouragement, treats, a hug, a note promising some alone time with you, a promise of a special meal, or a note promising some one-on-one time and attention.  It is very important that you leave dust and a reward every single time that your child does something to help around the house.  If you don't act on it immediately you will lose their trust and assistance.