My seven year old doesn’t have a strong concept of responsibility. She has been pushing boundaries lately, which I can’t fault her for. Not only is it part of her development as a kiddo, summer brought on a lot of changes. No more school, no more schedule, and in the interest of trying to find time to take work shifts, she had been spending more time with her dad and her grandma.

Although her father and I separated almost two years ago, it is still and forever will be an emotional struggle for her to cope with. Fortunately, as time goes on, her father and I have begun building a good co-parenting relationship.

As she pushes boundaries, I have to remain firm and try to guide her. That’s my job as a parent. My job isn’t to be her friend and she has demonstrated that by making it difficult to discuss things with her. Becoming angry and upset over small semantics. Tomato vs tomahtoe. I’ve learned well not to force talks with her. She doesn’t want to talk; she wants a strong leader. Organization.

Long intro short, each night at 7:30, this mom will march into her room to grab all the toys on the floor and throw them into a one week time out. If this does not encourage responsibility, the time outs will extend to two weeks. Then three.

Last night, I implemented this for the first time. By the end of the night, her room was spotless, I had two large bowls filled with toys to be put into toy jail for a week, and before hopping into bed, she straightened her slippers ever-so-slightly so as to avoid me removing anything further from her room.

Let’s see what happens tonight…