Janet Jackson had a song about it, politicians live for it and my 5-year-old thinks it’s the “bees knees”. Unfortunately, these days, it’s in a rat-race with Chuck-E-”Sneeze”. Oh, lucky me.
Some say that it’s the magic age of two when kids, like Agent 86, “Get Smart” and want control. Mine came out of the womb and raised her hand to negotiate sleeping arrangements. Better than Herb Cohen, Master Negotiator Extraordinaire, to-date Madison never used her crib. It sat in our garage until we had another child 5 years later.
These days she prides herself on letting me know when something is not fair or is out of order. I’m cool with that; I’m not above constuctive critiscm. However, when she threw a tantrum tonight and decided to hit Daddy, I pulled out the big guns – my iPhone.
Yesterday I downloaded an app called “iReward Chart” by Gotclues Inc. All-in-all it’s pretty much a reward chart within a fingertips notice. But, what I hadn’t counted on was that the rewards Jeff and I came up with would spur my little control-freak into action. Examples: 2 Hours on the Computer = 16 stars, Spa Bath (with salts & nail polish) = 56 stars, Movie Night with Pizza & Popcorn = 100 stars, Toys R Us & $20 = 200 stars… We had a star chart before but apparently a piece of paper and magnetic stars lacked novelty. Somehow I feel like I should be quoting my Grandfather and lugging out the black and whites, “…When I was a kid we didn’t have paper. We had to use charcoal and a piece of driftwood…”
If I would have known that a 2×4 technical wonder lit fires, I would have wined & dined Steve Jobs back in the day.
Ok, maybe not.
But, I would have bought an iPhone before almost turning 40. That and stock…and I’m not talking poultry.
Combine “iReward Chart” with “Chore Hero”, by the Play Forge, and I am more well armed than Neo, in his long flowing black garbs and in his white elongated room of weaponry. I know, I’m starting to sound like an app ad, but when was the last time your kid said, “Let me think of more chores I can do”? Yes, seriously. Let me help you up off that floor.
Unfortunately, this new-found fervor does not come without a price. Sure, I’ve doled out a couple of dollars here and a couple of dollars there, but I’ve also done 300 piles of laundry (ok, I might be exaggerating a little), cleaned and organized the kitchen, re-done the bathrooms and have gotten on hands and knees to ensure I am not left in the dust. (Pun intended.) It’s not that I am swirling in excitement over Lemon-scented Lysol, but cooking dinner and wiping counters has actually become fun. I think I even told Madison that I would get a trophy for the winner to hold onto for the following week. Understand that I dread prancing in to “Things Remembered” for an engraved acrylic with the title of “Chore Star” and I fear that a home-grown craft project, complete with glue-gun-scars, might be on the horizon. Just sayin’.
Tomorrow I scour the front pages in hopes of the U.S. announcing they will be hosting the “Tidy Olympics”. After all, it seems that Madison and I are already waving Clorox Clean-up flags and riding purple Swiffers of glory….
