7 Quiet Nights

I presented a challenge to my kids...well...the older two.  They currently share a room.  Dave and I (and I'm sure the kids were too) were tired of disciplining them in a negative way (spankings) every. single. night. for goofing around and talking after tucking them in to bed at night.  They know the expectation, and that is to stay in their beds and not talk.  No asking for drinks of water, etc.  I don't know the exact reason why it was so hard for them to stay quiet.

I decided to change my approach and motivate them in a positive way.  And it worked wonderfully.  I told them that they would get a trip to Chuck E. Cheese if they managed to stay in their beds at night and be quiet and no talking, for seven straight nights.  I emphasized to them that it had to be 7 nights IN A ROW, and if they goofed around even one night, that would mess it up and they would have to start back over at 1 and try for 7 more nights in a row being quiet.  They both understood, they were both very excited, and proved to me they could do it.  I told them this was going to be a team effort, since they BOTH had to be quiet TOGETHER, so both of them were also motivated to not mess it up for the other person and be blamed for screwing it up.  I really didn't expect them to do it...but the first night, I told them I was going to leave their door open so I could listen to them.  I listened, and heard nothing.  I don't think they even flopped in their beds, they laid so quiet and still.  On the chart I had created and put in the hallway by their bedroom door, I put a "perfect" sticker on the first night's box, looked at the other 6 nights and wondered how the rest of the week would go.   The next morning they both woke up, saw the sticker on the first box, and cheered like they won the lottery.  I congratulated them on their first successful night and so it went...6 more quiet nights.  No goofing around...nothing.  The chart filled up with stickers, and they couldn't wait to go!

So the prize they won was a night to play at Chuck E. Cheese.  We went yesterday, Thursday night. We got some pizza for supper, 100 tokens to split (Vanessa was just in on the action and had no clue she won anything...) and they enjoyed a fun night playing games, collecting tickets, and redeeming them for a little prize at the end.

The funniest (and probably most humiliating!), was when we lost track of Vanessa for a short time, and I found her sitting at someone else's table chowing down on their pizza.  Nobody noticed or said anything, but Dave and I felt pretty bad and got a pretty good laugh out of it.  She got pretty upset when I took it away from her, so we re-directed her to our own table and our own leftover pizza for her to eat. 

I don't know what is next in terms of positively motivating them.  They are looking forward to a new chart to work towards something.  Going to Chuck E. Cheese was probably overkill for a prize...and too expensive to do again for another reward...so I guess we'll have to come up with something.  Maybe $1 for 14 days of quiet nights....and a trip to the dollar tree. :)

Either way, bedtime since then has been very easy.  The "getting ready for bed" is still a bit wild...getting everybody's teeth brushed, making sure everybody has gone pee, and getting pajamas on (there has to be some type of rotation/schedule to follow...its just crazy), then reading books, all while tending to a generally fussy Eli at that time of night.  Dave is super helpful and does most of the bedtime work too.  But the kids have maintained their state of being quiet once we tuck them into their beds, and we leave the door open so they know we can hear them.  It seems to be working for the time being anyway.