Category: Checklist

Some days you just wake up with a sense of happy anticipation – like something wonderful is going to happen. And nothing seems to be able to dampen your spirits. Not cranky kids, not the power cut in the gym, not the fact that the husband has to travel… Nothing.

Feeling very inspired and determined to hold on to this feeling I went over the day trying to identify possible trouble areas.

One of the most testing times of my day, I realised, is when the kids get back from school. They are tired and probably hungry, yet are bursting with things to tell… both of them simultaneously. I have a hard time keeping up two full fledged often very different conversations.

Then there’s the issue of lunch. For me the top priority is that they get cleaned up and get to their lunch/snack FAST, since it’s four by the the time the bus drops them. For them that’s about 100th on the list.

I end up hurrying them, barking out a bunch of instructions which seem like an unending list – a huge and painful one at that. They dawdle and bicker and end up in tears.

A few days back a friend shared the idea of having a task checklist. Well I decided to come up with mine….. with an incentive too.

 

A tick in each column for ten straight days gets them a small gift.

When I showed them the list they seemed cynical at best. Sure sign that they’re growing up! I refused to let my enthusiasm were off cajoling them to at least try it.

It was a slow start (why do we have to put our shoes inside? Whey do we always have to wear chappals. But soon they were running around the house doing stuff, giggling, ticking it off – oh it was fun and they got most of it done.

Of course it’s just day 1 and they might/will tire of it and that will be fine, because the idea is NOT to turn them into tiny robots but to get the basic habit in place. It’s like ‘oh today I forgot to put my tiffin for washing.. Rather than see ma today I remembered to put it for washing.