ODUS 2.0 vol 14: WHAT DO WE DO NOW

Several months ago I decided the end-of-the-day toy clutter was getting a little out of hand and figured our house could use a little bit better clean-up incentive program.  

And Gunny Bag was born.

And he had been working like a dream!  For a long time Brinlee was terrified of Gunny Bag getting her things, and Tim and I were having to do virtually no evening toy pick-up, ever.  It was awesome! But, as time went on, Gunny Bag lost a bit of his "Eek" factor for Brinlee, and we noticed her getting less and less careful about her toys, and found that Gunny was going less and less hungry.  She knew it was her choice, and as long as she was still hating doing the chores to get her stuff back (which she was), I figured it must still be at least kind of working.

Until a couple weeks ago.  

Brinlee and McKenna spent a fun-filled day up in their room getting out everything (and I mean everything) they own!  I poked my head in a time or two and warned Brinlee about the job she would have to do before dinner if they kept up the mess, but she only kept assuring me that she could handle it.  Well, as it always does, dinner time came, which meant clean up time was fast approaching.  I helped her clean up some of the stuff I knew McKenna had pulled out, but then I gave her her 5 minute warning, reminding her that anything not put away by dinner time was going to Gunny Bag.  She happily said "ok mom, I'll do it". And off she went.  She was quiet upstairs for 5 minutes, then I called her to dinner and we went on with the evening. When dinner was finished, we headed upstairs for bedtime, only to find Brinlee's usually immaculately clean room still a total disaster!  I said "Brinlee, what happened? You know Gunny Bag is going to get all of this?"

To which she very pointedly replied "Yeah, I know.  It's just such a big mess! It will be too hard to clean up.  Gunny bag can have the toys, I'll just do the chores."

Gack!

So, for several days our room looked something like this

while Brinlee scrubbed (and I mean scrubbed) the entire house.
That poor girl was like our own little Cinderella. She worked hard!  I kept reminding her that this was her choice, and bless her heart she didn't really complain.  But she also wasn't as phased as I had hoped she would be.  It did seem to have some effect on her, she has been much better about her messes ever since.  But I have the feeling that it's only a matter of time before Gunny Bag loses his grip on things again...

So what do you do when your 3-year-old is smarter than your parenting tactics??

So much for thinking we had things under control.
Back to the old drawing board.