Finally after months of "winging it" I kind of felt like our parenting decisions just weren't cutting it any more. And after a particularly traumatic Costco experience complete with kicking and screaming, I felt like something drastic had to be done.

So I did the most drastic thing I could think of- I made a chart.

But enacting positive rewards for good behavior has not done me well. We started with "Penny Points" a couple of years ago. The idea was simple. Good behavior means adding pennies to a jar. When Jackson reached a certain line he got a reward.

The problem: It took too long to reach the line, so he lost interest in the reward and the whole thing became ineffective.

Then we did "obedience marbles" which started off okay. But the temptation to play with them was too much that he stopped looking at them as a rewards system and decided to play with them every day, removing and adding marbles at will. So this didn't work either.

So this time I decided to stay away from jars altogether. But it still had to be cool. Because if Jackson didn't think it was cool, it was sure to flop just as the others had. So for weeks I have been weighing this in my mind. And I think I came up with the perfect thing for Jackson.

Enter, the space chart:



With a cool thing like outer space, I knew Jackson would think it was awesome. There is a rocket at the bottom with a mission to reach the moon. But instead of making this a single reward chart I added to smaller rewards along the way to keep him motivated and excited about the idea.

So Jackson is able to add foil stars on the rocket's path. Once the foil stars reach the first reward, he gets a chocolate ice cream cone (his choice). The second reward is attending a basketball game with Greg, and the final reward (the moon!) is a trip to Kid's Junction (a glorified, cleaner version of Chuck E Cheese). He can earn stars by staying in his bed, being kind to mom, and being kind to Bennett. Each day after work Greg asks Jackson about his day to see if the star was earned.

So far so good. If you look closely you can see his first three stars already proudly placed on the rocket's path.

Here's to hoping this chart works and that Jackson reaches the moon. Because if not, I am completely out of ideas!