Mom, I lost my mittens again: the lost and found at the General Store
20 December, 2018
January has barely begun, and Laurier has already lost two mittens (from the same hand), two false collars, and the nice reusable juice box I bought him out of ecological and economical concern. Each time, I ask him to go check the school's lost and found. I tell myself that thanks to the labels I've carefully affixed to each of his items, he'll surely find what he's misplaced. Almost every time, he forgets, and I have to go myself to rummage through that famous box in search of the lost item. Sometimes I find it, sometimes I don't. It exasperates me! My mother tells me it's normal at his age, that she experienced the same thing with me when I was little. For my part, I can't resign myself and wait for maturity to suddenly strike him, making him responsible. So, in my head as a mother-who-tells-herself-there's-always-something-to-be-done, in my brain as a mom-who-refuses-to-give-in-to-my-children's-bad-habits, I imagined and tested a solution. If this solution worked for us, perhaps it will also be effective with your little lunatics. It's worth a try!
For several years now, we've been using the General Store at home, our positive reinforcement system designed to encourage good behavior in children; children do their chores and/or adopt good behavioral attitudes, and in exchange, we give them tokens. Depending on the number of accumulated tokens, they can then "buy" rewards or privilege coupons found in the General Store box. After careful consideration, I came to the conclusion that getting a new hat, new mittens, or a new lunch box to replace lost ones was a privilege in itself. So, we inserted a "Lost and Found" Section into the 20-token section of our store, a small downloadable trick that can be printed and glued to the inside wall of the store. I announced to my brood that from now on, they would have to pay 20 tokens to contribute to the purchase of a replacement item if they lost or damaged something.
The idea behind all this is to make them understand the value of things. Even as adults, when we have to spend money to replace a necessity, unfortunately, it sometimes happens that we can no longer afford little extras. That's life! By having to spend 20 tokens to get new mittens, my son realized he no longer had enough tokens to get the two pots of playdough he coveted. I swear that this time, I didn't have to remind him to go search the school's lost and found box. He went on his own!
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