Catherine, aka Cinderella

Earlier this month, we began using a new approach to discipline with Catherine. When she grossly misbehaves, she must pay us with a toy. We choose the toy, and we also choose the payment necessary to earn the toy back. (Payment is just about any chore we think she might be able to manage.) Within a couple of weeks, our collection of Cat's toys got to be really big and she wasn't motivated to earn them back, so we established the "Chore Store." She was welcome to buy any toy back, paying us with the chore displayed on the price tag, but whatever she didn't purchase by Saturday was going to someone else who needed toys. It worked! She did all kinds of things--cleaning mirrors, washing toilets and bath tubs, vacuuming, sweeping, dusting, doing dishes, putting laundry in the washing machine and dryer, folding and putting clothes away, it was great! The house looked wonderful that week. Unfortunately, she's behaved pretty well since then and we haven't been able to get as many chores out of her, but one day I needed to mop while Jack was sleeping and Cat was very eager to help. I figured she'd done so many other things, why not? And she loved it! Maybe watching Cinderella over and over again has paid off?