And on the lighter side

I want to be back in the blogosphere--but I am obviously struggling to find much worth writing about. This morning I thought I'd share one of those tiny motherhood victories--a great idea that is simple to execute but makes life a bit easier.

Every morning without fail, my 5 year old asks if she can play games on my phone. My 2 1/2 year old also loves to play with it, so there is often bickering. I am not in love with the idea of my little ones being so phone-involved, so I wanted to limit their exposure, but I really don't mind them having it sometimes. I also have the age-old problem of kid-associated clutter slowly overrunning my home.

The solution? Each time the kids ask to use my phone, my standard response is now "Sure, you can earn 10 minutes of play time for picking up 10 things." Sometimes this is enough to put them off entirely without my saying no. But more often, they zip away, clean for a few minutes and return, hand held out eagerly in anticipation of zombies. or angry birds. or cupcake decorating. or whatever. I set the timer on the phone and when it beeps they have the option of cleaning up 10 more things to earn 10 more minutes or just being finished. Almost always, the little ones contentedly yield up the phone and run off in search of new amusements.

This has taken the stress off of me because I never have to say no (not that I mind saying no, but I feel like I am saying it all day!) It puts all of the choices on them and they can take some responsibility. Plus, they are getting used to picking things up.

Another thing along these lines--most of you probably do this... For a long time I have done the "15-item pick up"--in the middle of the day when things are looking a little messy I pause whatever we are doing and say "Quick! 15 item pick up!" We all run around and pick up our 15 things and then we are done for awhile. I think this works really well because it keeps the job small and manageable for the little ones. They can count to 15 and it doesn't overwhelm them. Sometimes I get ambitious and try for 20, but I get so many complaints when I do that, I usually stick with 15 (10 if Smidget seems grouchy). And then I might do that every 30 minutes or so until the house is picked up enough that I can breathe easy.

Now it's your turn ... what little tricks have you discovered to squeeze some extra help out of the kiddos?