“Do you wanna know what I just did?”

It’s not the phrase that any parent wants to hear, and it certainly wasn’t what I wanted to be awakened with last Friday morning.  Woo was so happy and proud though, that I calmly asked what it was, instead of overreacting.  “I put the new bag in the garbage can.  All by myself!” I smiled and told him how great that was, and how I appreciated it and he ran off to play with Goose.  About a minute later he was back, this time to Willy’s side of the bed.  The conversation was exactly the same, excitement followed by praise.  There was a punchline this time, Woo asked for a jelly bean as a reward.

We never don’t often reward* our lils with candy, but the jelly beans have a history.  They are Woo’s reward for staying dry overnight.  In a moment when I thought that I would never be through with diapers I had asked him what he thought would help him stay dry/get up in the night.  He said jelly beans and it worked for a couple of nights in a row at first.  Now we are hit and miss, but still offer the jelly beans as a treat when it happens.  I guess he figured this was worthy,  and offered it up.  Willy gave some form of non-committal response and we headed down to breakfast.

It was after I got some coffee into me that I had a revelation.  Woo had done a chore.  He even sought a reward for it.  We have officially moved into allowance territory!!  I immediately started to talk it up to Woo, and we quickly agreed on the ground rules. There will be a chart that lists the chores that Woo can do to help out around the house, each time he does something he can mark it off, and at the end of the week we will pay him for each chore completed.  He is so keen, even though he has never had money of his own.  We’re not even sure he would want to spend it.  The best part is the rate that we agreed on – five cents per chore!

I haven’t created the chart yet, but after supper tonight Woo went to feed @thecat.  As he finished filling her bowl he looked at me and asked if this counted as a chore.  I am going to like this!

*they also get Smarties with medicine, because medicine is rotten and Smarties are YUMMY!*