Stiff penalties for infractions

About a year ago, maybe longer, we were having a problem with the kids leaving lights on, radios on - you name it, if it took electricity, they left it on. It was driving me crazy. I felt like all I did was go through the house turning off radios and TVs and shutting off lights.

I harped and harped about how it took money to run the electricity and I didn't appreciate mine and Daddy's money being wasted. I was pretty much a broken record. Until one day it hit me, make them pay for the electricity. So, I gave my warning speech and informed the kids that every time I found some type of electricity infraction they would have to pay me 25 cents.


Well, wouldn't ya know, it worked! It wasn't long before I had a nice stack of quarters, but I was also finding that I wasn't having to turn off as many lights, radios and TVs! I had hit them in the wallet where it hurt.


Now, fast forward to a few nights ago at dinner where we always have a problem with children talking with food in their mouths and smacking. This really grates on my husband's nerves and it's almost a given that at some point during our evening meal (usually more than once) he gives the speech about eating outside with the animals because that's what the kids sound like.


Well, guess what? I decided that if the electricity thing worked, maybe it would work for table manners, too. So, on a whim, I threw out the idea of having to pay for table manner infractions, too. Drake suggested $1 for each infraction - but we decided they wouldn't be able to afford that, so we settled on $.10 per infraction. That night alone the kids owed us $.70 between them. LOL!


So, I decided to make a little "infraction jar" to have to collect the infraction fees. I just used an old peanut butter container that I had washed out and decorated it up - again, with some scraps of stuff lying around. It serves its purpose - and I thought it was rather cute. I used the Cricut to cut out the circle for the top and the stars on the sides of the jar.