The Redeeming Qualities of Bribery; In other words, how to clean with a 3 year old.

Today I cleaned for 3.5 hours straight.  I am pleased to say I have a spotless kitchen, laundry room, living room, dining room, guest bathroom, as well as mostly clean children rooms.  Not bad right?  Especially since my only helper is 3 and a half.  Now make sure you are sitting for this next part.  My three and a half year old helped me for THE WHOLE TIME.  True story.  Here's how it is done.

1.  Bribe child with small treat.  I used mini marshmallows.  Other possibilities could be skittles, mini chocolate chips, peanuts, raspberries (if only I had some of those!), etc.  He would get one marshmallow everytime he did a small job like take shoes into the correct room or throw a few pieces of trash in the garbage.  2 or 3 marshmallows would be rewarded for a bigger job like vacuuming under the table.

Disclaimer:  I don't bribe every time he does work.  Cleaning his room, cleaning up a certain mess, those are just chores.  But on a major cleaning day like today, bribery definitely has a place.  Also, treats are definitely just that - a treat in our house.  We don't have them very often.  So that makes them hold their power so much more.  Don't like the treat idea?  Try stickers!

And that's it!  

Cost:  20-30 mini marshmallows.
Benefit:  3 hours of helping. He ran all those little obnoxious errands like putting a random bobby pin in my bathroom, picking up socks or odd pairs of shoes.  My poor pregnant body resents picking up all those little things that accumulate on our floor.

Also, since he was helping me for 3 hours, this meant he was NOT bugging me for 3 hours, making a mess for 3 hours, teasing baby sister for 3 hours, getting into trouble for 3 hours...the list goes on.

Besides running errands, here are some examples of the jobs he did today:

Held the spray while I mopped.  Sprayed really stubborn spots for me.  He loved this job the most I think.  Each sticky spot got about 20 sprays, but hey, it was clean.

Vacuuming.  Especially those hard to reach places like corners and under the table.

Scrubbing crayon marks off the floor with Magic Eraser.  Even little sis got into this one!  

Happy mom, Happy Kids, Clean House, WIN WIN WIN!!!  And all it took was a handful of mini-marshmallows.