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I finally got my kid to put his shoes away without asking
For months, his sneakers were always in the middle of the kitchen floor. Yesterday, I put a cheap plastic bin by the back door and told him that's where they live now. This morning, I walked in and they were actually in the bin. It took one simple change and about 24 hours. Has anyone else found a tiny fix that finally worked after a long time?
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lindareed3mo ago
My sister had the same issue with her son's backpack always dumped in the hallway. She just put a big hook right at his eye level by the front door. He started hanging it up the very next day. Sometimes the solution isn't about reminding them, it's just making the right thing the easiest thing to do. That bin by the door is perfect because it takes less effort to drop them in than to step over them. It feels like a magic trick when it finally clicks.
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grant.jade3mo ago
Read a parenting book that called this "behavioral design.
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brookep271mo ago
Hold on, I have to push back a little here. Setting the hook at kid-eye level works great until that kid is 15 and decides he doesn't want to hang his backpack up anymore. Then you're just staring at a hook holding nothing while the backpack is still on the floor. I've seen this with my nephew - his parents rearranged the whole mudroom for him and he just stopped caring after two weeks. The real problem isn't the location of the hook, it's the kid's own motivation. If they don't see the mess as a problem worth solving, no amount of convenience engineering will fix it. Sometimes the magic trick is just them growing up enough to care.
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