Mom on Strike Series – Part 1: The Experiment
Let me start off by saying that some of you may not agree with what I am about to do and some of you will be cheering me on, but there are changes that need to take place in this house…not only for my sanity but to also teach my boys some responsibility. With that said…
Mom On Strike: An Experiment
Yesterday morning I was watching The Today Show and they had a mom on the show that went on strike to teach her kids that they are responsible for their own mess. After almost a week of the husband and wife being on strike…no laundry or cleaning up after the kids at all, their girls took notice. All 3 of their girls realized that they were the cause of the mess in the home and are now helping out more. It’s only been a week since this took place, but from the sounds of it …things are looking up for the family.
On that note…My husband and I have always tried to instill in our boys that they are responsible for their mess and that they have to clean up after themselves as well as take responsibility for their chores.
The problem is that my husband and I catch ourselves telling them every single night to pick up the clothes off the bathroom floor, wash their plate after dinner or better yet…the daily struggle to keep their rooms cleans even though they are at school ALL day. I don’t understand how their room gets so dirty…so quickly!
The question is…have they learned? NOPE…
Since I am home all day working on Moms Confession full time and managing the household, I usually just take care of the mess that accumulates in the house and go on about my day. Watching the show yesterday morning, I caught myself thinking…
What are we teaching our boys? Then it occurred to me…
Absolutely NOTHING, except that they will need a maid when they are old enough to move out of the house. :)
That’s not how it should be so we are making a last ditch effort to gain control of the kid’s mess once and for all so they become responsible and accountable young adults.
At least, I hope this works.
After watching the show, I spent most of the day cleaning everything from top to bottom. All the laundry has been washed. Every nook and cranny are officially clean and now we have a good starting point to start our experiment. I can only imagine how much of a mess this is going to be once our experiment is over. In other words…we are going on strike!
We are not giving any warning much like Jessica from Striking Mom did. We are also going to try REALLY hard not to tell them to pick up their mess. Honestly, I think that is going to be the toughest part of this strike. I have self-diagnosed OCD so I may not survive this at all.
Sigh…
During our experiment (strike), we may add tools to see how they work. One of the only things that we will be doing is:
- Both of the kids will be reminded one time to do homework because their education is the most important thing.
We may or may not also remind them one time to look at the clock since 9 pm has been a set time for them to go to sleep for a long time at this point. They should know this by now, but they know we will tell them the time and this is why we may or may not remind them.
When your kid looks at the clock and says, “can we get a digital clock to hang on the wall?” Something is VERY wrong…
Here’s a visual of what our home should look like through the eyes of a “self-diagnosed” OCD person…aka ME! :)
Stay tuned for updates because this could be tons of fun or a complete disaster. It will probably be more of a disaster than fun, but something has to give and I really hope our boys learn something from this.
Here goes nothing!
Have you ever thought about going on a mom strike?
Funny you should post this … I work full-time outside the home, so we have a maid service that comes every other week. I have a custom plan – they only clean the kitchen, bathrooms, master bedroom, and the family room. The kids are responsible for their own bedroom. At any rate, the morning that the maids come is always a bad morning, because the kids still have “STUFF” all over the family room and kitchen! I had had it on Monday morning when they still hadn’t even taken their stuff to their space. I threatened to just start throwing it all away – whatever was left out in the “common spaces” when they went to bed each night was going in the trash. I haven’t made good on it yet … but I’m tempted too!
I have had the same conversation with my boys as well. And I have taken away some stuff, but they always got it back by the end of the day. I cave too easy so this little experiment should be interesting.
We had our kids in two “batches”. The older four are over 18 and we still have a 10 & 12 year old. When the big kids were younger I would collect everything left on the floor after they went to bed, and put it in my bedroom closet. If they wanted their things back, they had to pay a quarter per item. So a pair of shoes was .50, and I charged $1 for a school backpack. It definitely encouraged them to pick up their stuff! That being said, we’ve fallen into the nag-till-it-gets-done with these younger two. It’s time to do something about that. Sigh. Maybe we should go on strike for a week! I applaud you, and I’ll be watching to see how this goes!
When my big kids were smaller, I did something similar. I bagged up everything that was left on the floor after they went to bed. After they started noticing the whole lack of toys thing, it was a-maze-ing how much better they got at picking up after themselves!
I’m rooting for you lady! I think this is great, and I seriously hope it works! I’ve thought about doing this before but my kids are still so little that they probably wouldn’t even notice :)
Good Luck & Keep us posted!
I just wish my kids were old enough to be able to start this experiment. Good for you. I hope it goes better than you think. Kids need to be taught responsibility. I think we have all lost that notion and kids expect us to do so much for them.
Amen April! :)
I have absolutely NO problem with you doing this. IN fact, I applaud you for doing it! No hate from me mama. If my kids were older I’d do the same!
Thanks Heather!
I think this is a good idea and I’m on your side! A while ago we had a housekeeper that would come in every other week to clean, but my kids were expected to pick up their own room. One day, I reminded them for the umpteenth time to pick up and they said, ______ will do it. I hit the roof, told our wonderful housekeeper she was no longer needed and then retrained our kids. They need reminders. Good for you!! The challenge for you will be not picking up for them.
I would like to see pictures thru this “strike” lol
I think this is a GREAT idea. Good luck and I love you
LOVE….so ready to see the disaster unfold but hopeful that the opposite will happen!
I applaud your efforts and am sitting here as a single mom with the same problem thinking I might have to do the same thing. I think its great! can’t wait to see updates