Eight O'Clock Pick-Up

An excerpt from 401 Ways to Get Your Kids to Work at Home: Household tested and proven effective! Techniques, tips, tricks, and strategies on how to get your kids to ... become self-reliant, responsible adults
I mean, really, if you can't find something that works after reading 401 suggestions, it's time to send the kids back to wherever they came from.  ;-):

Carolyn discovered a natural consequence that worked wonders.  The incident that motivated Carolyn, and her husband, Bob, to try this program was the mess they came home to one night.  Books, toys, clothes, towels and dishes were everywhere.  Rather than wake everyone in their anger, they laid out a plan.  The next morning they explained to the children, "We will go through the house twoice a day at eight o'clock.  anything left out in the general living areas will be put in the Extra-Service Box and will have to be redeemed with a chore sometime before Saturday at noon.  Consider yourselves warned."  That night, Carolyn and Bob picked up twelve things.  Next morning, when the children noticed the Extra-Service Box sitting in a conspicuous place on top of the refrigerator, they were all curious about who had things in the box.  "What do I need to do for you, Mom, to earn back my shoes?"  "Wipe off the TV screen" was the answer.

Carolyn had unsuccessfully tried using a similar technique before, where she would pick up an item left out at any time.  This was asking for perfection from the child and the parent had to stand guard all the time.  It was unenforceable.  Her real purpose was not to make the child perfect but to get him or her to notice and put away their own things.  She did not mind so much that things were left out in temporary spots once in a while, but it angered her when those temporary spots became permanent and the child never noticed the item until it was needed several days later.  For example, one of her sons had three coats.  He would go to the closet every time he needed a coat and only when there was not a coat in the closet would he think about where he could have left them.
This time, as Carolyn used this behavior modification technique, it was easier to be consistent with the consequence because it only happened twice a day.  She also watched for chances to reinforce the desired behavior when a child did pick up something: "Becky is saving herself an extra-service chore by picking up her shoes." An important ingredient for changing a habit is giving positive recognition for the desired action.

The evening of the second day, the fifteen-year-old could be seen picking up a whole arm load as she headed toward her bedroom.  Succes!  It was working.  This young lady was very involved in school activities but was especially careless at home.  It was this teen who put her dad's shoes in the box because they were out after eight o'clock and declared he would have to do her an extra chore.  The fourth morning was Saturday.  As the eleven-year-old boy appeared for breakfast, he noticed the service box and started checking to see if he had to redeem anything.  "What do I need to do to redeem my coat, Mom?"  Carolyn had him take the newspapers out to the garage.  This young man not only redeemed his own items, but everyone else's too.  Then he proudly took each item to the owner, telling about his generosity.  Carolyn's eight-year-old daughter had a spurt of energy while her mother was gone, and emptied the dish drainer and washed a sinkful of dishes.  "Did you like the way I helped out?  Does that mean I have redeemed something ahead of time?"  Success again!  She was noticing things that needed to be done without being told.

This eight o'clock pick-up was used by Carolyn every day for several weeks and then she let it die because the childen were much improved at picking up after themselves.  Three months later, she used it again for a few days to reinforce the principle.  Why did the eight o'clock pick-up work?

1. The children were mature enough to understand.

2. The eight o'clock rounds were easier to enforce than the "all the time" rule.

3. The Extra-Service Box was left out where it could be seen.

4. Redemption chores were kept very, very simple - less than five minutes and chores that were normally not theirs.

5. Special efforts were made to give lots of positive attention when the children picked up and put things away at other times.

6. A gentle, one-time reminder was often given before the parent's rounds were made.

7. The child's things left out in his own bedroom did not count; rather, they were treated with the daily pick-up chore by the child in the room and on Saturday when the bedroom was thoroughly cleaned.