Congratulations! You are grounded!!

I have been a parent for 23 years.  In that time, I have had disorganized ideas of discipline.  Some things stuck, some ideas didn't.  I am not a huge fan of spankings, but believe me, I have delivered my share.  I like the idea of timeout, but really, I think I might be the only one who benefits from those.  Now that the littles are older, I have implemented grounding all over again.  That always worked with J.  Not so much with H.  H wasn't into TV or computers or games, so what was I grounding her from?  Not much. With J, I always unhooked the PS2 or the Xbox 360 and the TV until he earned it back. With the littles, for some reason I had a hard time making it stick.  Or I could never come up with the right amount of time.  

After perusing the Internet for summer fun a month or so ago, I ran across this little goodie:  Grounded??  I immediately got started on my own list.  I copied some from her list, used some from her list with different point values, and came up with some items of my own.  I know this list is a work in progress, for example, I am thinking I really don't want my 5 year old to fix dinner for us by himself or do a load of laundry from start to finish.  

I debated whether to have them earn 500 points.  It seemed too easy.  But really it isn't as easy as one would think.  Just because I would rack up thousands of points a day doesn't mean it is easy enough for the littles to do it.  However, this is discipline, a punishment for not-okay behavior.  It shouldn't be easy.  So I am going to go ahead and stick with 500 points for now.  They still have to do their regular chores - straighten up their room, pick up their toys, etc.  These are in addition.

A is already up to 140 points since this morning.  I now have empty trashcans, 2 clean toilets, the living room/dining room dusted, and a sweet note (even if she wrote it to get points).  

Oh my goodness.  I am not going to lie.  This is my new method of discipline.  A clean house?  Yes, please. I kinda hope they get grounded every week.  (jk, really, I promise...)