Problem:

Items left laying on the floor for long periods of time will not be picked up unless there is benifit and value to the person who see's it.

Hypothisis:

Mom is the only person in the house who will pick up an item from the floor that has no value or benifit to her.

Procedure:

1. leave one stinky dirty sock belonging to a 12 year old boy on the floor of the bathroom on Monday.
2. Leave one empty candy wrapper on the floor of the bathroom on Monday.
3. Leave one piece of wrapped chocolate on the floor of the bathroom on Monday.
4. Leave a one dollar bill on the floor of the bathroom on Monday.

Each day check to see what items remain. When people are in the house other than just Mom, it is best to check every half hour. Document the results of your inspections.

Results:

On Monday within an hour of putting out the one dollar bill, it was gone from the floor of the bathroom.

On Monday within one hour and nine minutes of putting out the wrapped piece of chocolate it was gone from the floor of the bathroom.

On Friday, five days after putting out the empty candy wrapper it was gone from the floor of the bathroom - but this observation is inconclusive because the cat was seen batting it around and then coughed up a "hair ball" so it is entirely possible the results of this piece were inteferred with by outside sources.

13 days after the experiement began the dirty stinky - now very stiff sock is still laying on the bathroom floor!

Conclusion:

Out of the 7 people who live in this house and use the bathroom in which the experiement was run - only Mom will pick up objects off the floor that have no benefit or value to her!

This fact was learned very early on in the household of this mother:)

Solution to problem........

Pick up things like dirty socks from bathroom floor. Put them in the "confiscated box". One day each month all children are required to bail their items out of the box for 50 cents each. It works wonders on most kids. My daughter, however, just spends half her money buying her stuff back and complaining that I'm unreasonable.

Lisa, love your solution to that age old problem. Wish I had thought of it when my kids were young !

My solution to ds not picking up his dirty clothes that were in parts of the house, not his room, was to hang them on the bushes out front to greet him as he got off the bus. It only took one time! His room still wasn't too straight after that, but the rest of the house looked great!

Thanks for the giggle! How true it is.

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DARN! Sure wish I'd have thought of that. Son was a real messie, went to the Navy and came home on leave. Hung up his uniform and finger pressed it so it was neat. Tossed socks on the floor. Said "Socks don't wrinkle". I said he didn't do that on ship, did he?
He just hugged me on the way out and said that Moms were nicer than any officers, and could cook a lot better too.

So of course I cooked his favorites...but no, I did not pick up any socks.

I take GD to school in the morning- she use to leave here pj's on the floor till one morning I picked up the bottoms hid them in my coat- when we got out front i slowed down a few step pulled them out and put them on my head...... we live on a busy street a half a block from the school but it was nice to see the school bus go buy at this time she turned around and screamed after that she pick's them up and in the hamper-

I'm a retired sciences teacher and loved this......so true!

I'm laughing to myself. This was not a problem in our house. My girls (didn't have any sons) learned how to do laundry, clean and cook starting at age 10. Before then they had to help with housework. My theory was that we all had to live there and they needed to learn how to take care of things at an early age. I am amazed at how many parents do not teach their children these things just because it is easier to do it themselves.