Sticker Chart Fiasco

My wife is trying a new way to motivate our kids to be more proactive in doing the things they need to do. This includes going to the potty by themselves quickly in the morning, getting dressed for school, doing their homework, and putting up the milks after a meal without us needing to ask them. In theory, this is a great concept. In practice, this was a fiasco waiting to happen.

The way she tried to measure their progress is through a sticker chart. Each time our 6 year old daughter E or 4 year old son C did something they were supposed to do without us nudging them, they got a sticker. There was a lot of excitement the first morning earlier in the week and both kids woke up determined to earn stickers. E needed to be asked to go potty and change for school. She also forgot to put up her milk after breakfast, so she was behind in the sticker count vs. C. C was feeling great about himself and kept saying he had more stickers. It also didn’t help that their sticker charts were next to each other, so they knew who had more.

The rest of the week turned into a competition where each of them had to be ahead. They competed hard and got frustrated when they forgot to do simmering to earn a sticker. They also kept probing my wife on other ways they could earn stickers. I can see my kids being very motivated and goal oriented, but they were borderline hounding my wife and being ultra competitive with each other. It was a true sticker chart fiasco.

By the end of the week, we decided to remove the sticker chart and come up with a new system. They had to work together to earn stickers and they could earn a joint reward. There were positives during the week where they tried not to fight and did successfully complete tasks without us needing to remind them, but the cons got the best of the equation. Back to the drawing board and no more sticker charts for now.