How to Get Your Kids to Hand Scrub the Tiled Floor

Yep!  You read it right.  I actually found a really "fun" and successful way to garner help for my kitchen floor.  It goes month(s?) without getting mopped because, well, it's hard work.  And it's one of the jobs that isn't the kindest on my back, even when using a mop.

Yesterday, I found my sweet daughter having a creativity/generosity explosion.  She was doing all sort of things (without asking).  When I found her with a washcloth, Christmas towel, and I-know-not-where-it-came-from bucket of water cleaning the glass doors of the entertainment center "for Daddy," I had an idea.  "Hey!  Sweetie!  I have an idea.  The perfect job for you.  Do you really want to clean something?"  ::winkie face to self::  "Follow Mommy...."  ::sly grin::

I set her up to scrub the kitchen floor.  She was in heaven!  But how was I going to make sure each tile got clean?  And I knew she wouldn't last long, so how would I know which ones had been done?

Beads.  What else?  It would only add to the colorful "fun" of scrubbing the kitchen floor.  And it definitely did.  I got down on the floor with her, and we worked together.  When my middle son found out what we were doing, it was all he could do to make himself sit and finish his schoolwork so he could then come clean the floor, too.  Score two for Mom!  :-D

I told EA that he would get $0.05 per tile he scrubbed.  I gave him blue and yellow beads to put down as he cleaned.  Since Eden and I had put down beads, he knew which ones were already clean and could simply go to town.  Using beads also allowed us to create a line of red beaded tiles so we could break halfway for lunch and more school (and once we had the red line, we picked up all the other beads so we wouldn't have to keep dancing across the floor then counted out his beads and added up his earnings...bonus: Math!).  Later, EA and I went back to work, knowing exactly where to start and finished that kitchen floor!  It was great fun to spend time with him and watch him have so much fun working AND earning money.  He's so proud of his $4.45, which I will HAPPILY give him for scrubbing my floor clean.  It looks and feels beautiful!  And I'm pretty sure he'll do it again because he knows that's it's a fast and easy way to earn money.  And he loves beads and water!  Win, win.  Done.

Super Undies!

Makes you giggle, doesn't it?  But I'm talking about a real product.  A few months ago, I went to a cloth diapering guru asking for ideas on how to get my oldest son JG out of overnight diapers.  With two boys in them every night, a good deal of our "Baby" budget category was flying out the window.  She suggested something they hadn't yet tried, "Super Undies."  They are on the expensive side for cloth at $30.00 a pair, but if you invest in them early on... they save you TONS!  Here are parts of the review I wrote for their budding business in the overnight cloth diapering category...

They are so soft!  I tried to wash by hand, and WOW they hold a lot of liquid!  I now machine wash after talking to customer service, and they have held up perfectly. They do take a bit longer to dry since they hold moisture so well.  My son also had to get used to the puffiness compared to a more slim overnight diaper, but he loved the softness.  Wanna know the best part?  I think because Super Undies are NOT a diaper, my son subconsciously quit wetting the bed!  With overnight diapers, he'd wake up to a soaked diaper (and sometimes bed) every morning.  Since having Super Undies for a couple months, he's wet the undies five times or less!  And for our family, they're so super that they also helped us figure out that our younger son no longer needs overnight diapers either -- or a Super Undies.  So one pair of Super Undies and two months took us from buying 60 overnight diapers a month to two boys who wear underwear to bed!

I would also add here that as a mom who never did cloth, these were the perfect solution.  There is no disassemble or reassembly for washing.  All you do is pull the cloths out of the little sewn in pocket, but they remain attached on side.  Pop it in a mesh bag for laundering, then just fold and push the cloths back into the pocket.  No pinning or anything.  Another good thing -- I'll have a pair for Eme when she is day trained but still working on night training!

If you want more information for yourself or a friend or you just wanna know more and watch a video:

Super Undies Nighttime Undies Potty Training Pants