Motivation

Motivation comes in various shapes and colors and around here Motivation looks like this:

Before this I found myself constantly saying “Boy, if you do that again then … (fill in negative consequence).”  Well, a little ‘parental skills’ research online (and in good old fashioned books) made that type of phrasing out to be simply ‘making threats’.  Drat.  Well, so what then?  What could I possibly do to encourage good behavior that was simple, did not require some sort of easily destroyed paper chart with stickers, that wouldn’t break my bank and that left us all happy?  I still am not quite sure how I arrived here with that glassy, googly eyed companion up above, but there it is.  Motivation.  So, now a good deed is rewarded by a noodle in a jar. And, if enough noodles are accrued over time there’s a colored star to reach with a reward attached. And doesn’t that jar just look so proud of you?

The little jar is to keep track of my progress – that guy just looks a little more crazed than proud and I find this fitting.  But it is really wonderful when I do something like pick up a lego that someone dropped and I hear “Mom, that was so nice!  You get a noodle!”  Oh, good.  Thanks.

Also, I do really enjoy yelling across the crowded park “BOY!  IF YOU COME TO THE CAR YOU EARN A NOODLE!”

Rosalyn does not seem particularly swayed by the promise of noodles.

And going back to that previous statement about earning things, earning noodles in that case, do you find yourself ever adopting a life motto that you repeat sort of often?  I do.  I say “You have to earn it to own it.”

Here’s B earning some noodles by helping me to put the Christmas tree up. 

He owned that tree.  I wish he could have put the lights on it too.  Do you find stringing the lights as cumbersome as I do?  If you can keep your Christmas cheer up whilst tangling the tangles then you are golden.

So, what motivates you and yours?