Zone Defense

Before anyone gets too excited, I am not referencing a parenting strategy that would be required if we had more than two children in the title of this post. Relax. I am referring to a home management strategy we are testing out around these parts. I recently read a book (The Entitlement Trap) that had a lot of good ideas for teaching kids responsibility and ownership, and probably my favorite strategy the authors discuss is that of a "zone". After much discussion, we sat the girls down for our first ever family meeting (to be held every Thursday from here on out), and after we opened with some compliments, we talked about how we planned to resolve sibling conflicts this summer (more on that later) and how we needed to work together as a team to keep our home nice and in relative order (then ended with our team cheer and some dessert. We are not afraid of cheesy over here. Cheesy is awesome and welcome when you have little children). So, we divided the main living spaces up into zones and we are each in charge of "working our zone" a couple times a day to keep things in check. The girls were SO excited by this idea, and Jillian accurately guessed which zones would belong to which family member (Hers is the living room, A's is the mud room, Matt's is the piano room, and mine is of course the kitchen/dining areas). The girls know they are to be responsible for their zones throughout the day, and that I expect a good 'zone check' before we leave for any activities in the morning, and then again in the evening before dinner and/or bath. The nice thing is that I don't have to specifically say, "Pick up the books" or "put the pillows on the couch", I just ask them to check their zone, or ask if they've worked their zone lately, and the rest is on their shoulders. This is working surprisingly well, and has been the subject of several funnies in just the few days this plan's been in action. 

-Jillian finds it sort of amusing that Matt gets the "easiest" zone. "Mom, all dad has to do is put the piano music away. That's not much of a chore". Seems she doesn't consider his role as sole provider for our family. Eh, no biggie. 

-Jillian walked through the kitchen as I was mid-dinner prep and still managing lunch/breakfast dishes--"Mom, your zone is a MESS"

-As we walked out the door on Saturday (through the mudroom as usual), Matt praised Adrienne for her work in the zone. "Wow, Adrienne, your zone looks great. You did a really nice job". Jillian heard this and immediately walked in to inspect. The verdict? "Um, there's hangers on the floor inside the coat closet. I'm not impressed". 

-Adrienne is absolutely exasperated by what she must view as lack of respect for her work. As I asked her to go check her zone yesterday, she walked in to find several pairs of shoes strung out across the floor. First, a heavy sigh. And then, "Oh man. Why is everybody always messing up my zone? Why can't people leave my zone alone? I'm tired of picking up everybody else's stuff".  Ha! Ah yes, this plan is working nicely....