Has anyone heard of the house fairy?

[Krista]

While I've been reading here for quite a while and have found a load of useful tips (and learned that I am not alone with most of the challenges faced in parenting) I've never really had a question worth posting.

Now I do: I am a stay at home mom of a beautiful little boy. The beauty stops at the doorway to his bedroom. Does anyone else have this problem?

We've tried everything...grounding, taking away allowance, no sleep overs, time outs...nothing seems to work. I just can't get my son to clean up his room.

My sister, with four of her own, has been trying to get me to sign up for this house fairy program which has my nieces and nephews rooms spotless. At first I didn't buy in to it, but visiting for Easter yesterday I was amazed at the tidy rooms she displayed. She showed me their website and the example videos were, admittedly, amazing. After watching them my son wanted to go straight home and clean his room...that was a complete shock. What I found really neat were the 'clean room galleries' where hundreds of parents have sent in photos of their success.

While it all looks great money is tight..even the $13 for this program. Does anyone here use this program or have any feedback about it? I'd really like to know what you think of it. My sister is all for it, but I'd like some outside the family opinions.

Anyone?

[workingmom]

Unfortunately I have not heard of the house fairy. But we did have the same problem with our daughter, she will be 5 in a couple of weeks. her idea of cleaning her room was to push everything under her bed and dressers. We sat her down one day and explained the idea of money to her. She already had a piggy bank where we put our change, but we got her a special girly piggy bank that was small and just for her allowance. we explained to her that she would have to clean her room in order to receive an allowance. And we would see how fast she could get the little piggy bank filled up. when it was full she could pick any one thing at the corner store as a treat (ice cream cone, chips, something she does not usually get). she received $2 for every time she cleaned her room. We were surprised at how well she did, she would clean her bedroom every day or every other day without being told to do so.

btw, it helped to have lots of storage bins/boxes for everything to go into.
good luck.

[twiceblessed]

I have never heard of a house fairy Krista. Would you mind posting the link so that I can take a peek?

[Krista]

I had to call my sister to get it

www.housefairy.org

[twiceblessed]

thank you ma'am. I'll swing onto the site in just a bit.

[twiceblessed]

Krista I just got done checking out the site, and my honest opinion is don't waste your money. I know $13 doesn't sound like a lot of money but when you think about it you can do the same thing for almost free. If you have access to a video camera and a friend to dress up you can do the same thing. Swing by the library or the book store and read through some parenting books/magazines --you'll find the exact same tips and ideas in them.

We found what works for our 7 year old is a "reward" system. I have made a chart and every day K has one or two tasks that she needs to complete. When they are completed she gets a star. At the end of the week if she has all her stars she gets to pick a fun craft project to do on Saturday or a picnic at the park or a nature hike or something that we know she will enjoy. The key is to finding rewards that interest your child and that he will want to strive for. Also, doing everything at one time is overwhelming, that's why we break it up. One day it's put books and dolls away, Friday's are put dirty clothes in hamper and put folded clothes away etc. Around here taking something away doesn't work that's why we are doing it this way.

Good luck