Extreme Measures

As the title suggests, we've had to take some extreme measures over here in the Short household.  It has been 'brewing' for a while.. the attitude, the lack of respect, the whining, the laziness.. all of these things are in reference to the boys and their toys.  They are so privileged to have some lovely, lovely things, but they fail frequently to look after them properly.  By properly I mean caring for them when they play with them AND when they are done playing with things putting them away.  Now I don't mind the house getting into a bit of a mess as they get carried away in their play, but at the end of each day we have a complete tidy up and lately that has become the dreaded part of the day.  The playroom has looked like a bomb has hit it and it takes them a long time to sort it all out.. bed time was getting later and they were missing out on stories. A few nights ago it was particularly bad and I looked up at Alex and said I think we need to take all their toys away. At that point it was more of an exasperated comment, but things spiralled, the boys attitude stank, and I said to Alex that I think we actually need to go through with it.  I was thinking about how much work it was going to be to remove all their toys, but I was really starting to feel that it needed to be done.. these boys need to learn to respect their things and look after them properly. So, we did it!  Alex finished getting the boys ready for bed while I emptied their bedroom of toys.  When the boys were in their beds I calmly explained what I had just done and why.  I explained to them that they would 'earn' their toys back gradually by looking after the few that I'll leave out.  They all understood and actually accepted it without tears or whining.  They were upset about it of course, but I was pleased with the way they accepted their punishment.  They understood why mummy and daddy had made this decision.  They went to sleep low spirited, but determined to improve in this area.


The rest of our evening was spent sorting and emptying their playroom.. 

which now looks like this:

This is the extent of the toys I've left out for now:

Will update on how this is going at a later date.