The Great Mumsnet Pasta Jar

[ghosty]

I just wanted to share with you the fantastic results we are having with the Pasta Jar idea I got from MN ... don't know who came up with it first but ... THANKYOU!!

DS (6 in November) has been a bit of a challenge for a while (about 5 years and 9 months to be exact ... )

He is coming to pocket money age and DH and I don't like the idea of just giving him money for nothing. So he has a jar. On a Monday morning it is empty. He gets a piece of pasta for sleeping well and no silly shenanigans at 5am etc, for playing nicely with his sister, getting ready for school/brushing his teeth/reading his reading book/eating dinner etc with no fuss, for having a nice attitude on the way home from school (this was a bit of an issue, I was getting all sorts of grief from him every day on the way home) ...
He loses pasta for unacceptable behaviour (hitting someone in a temper ... that is non negotiable, pasta comes straight out, no warnings ... other things have warnings before a piece of pasta is removed)
Anyway, each piece of pasta is worth 10 cents. On a Sunday night we count them out and we exchange the pasta for money which goes in his money box. Week one he got $2, week two $2.60 and he is heading towards $3 this week.
We have a changed child ... it is a bleeding miracle!

Thanks Mumsnet!

great isn't it? I had stopped using it, but I'm going back to it cos DD2 is being a complete pickle at the moment. It worked well when I did it originally.

Now was it Puff or Soupy?

Soupy, I'm just a copier !

I knew it was one of you!

Was it Soupy? My god, she is good isn't she? Always comes up with fab advice!

I'll second that. We did when we were on holiday for 2 weeks recently. DS (3.10) won a Thomas the Tannk Engine flag (cost 75p!) for 10 pieces of pasta and as a special treat another Thomas engine for 20 pieces. It improved his counting as we checked evey morning and I think made him appreciate what things cost.

We bought some really funny shaped pasta pieces at te beginning of the holiday and DH was appointed "Chancellor of the Bank of Pasta" (he works in an investment bank so sort of likes that dort of thing!). We all really enjoyed taking part in it, made a huge fuss when we got to a milestone and about rewarding him and he was really well behaved for 2 weeks. Result all round!

Meant to add that he is allowed to spend his money the following Saturday but at the moment he wants to save it. He has his eye on a toy that costs $100 ... bless, he doesn't realise how long it will take him to save up for it!

Ambitious wee chap isn't he.

Ds announced a couple of months back that he would like a bank account (2 going on 43!) he enjoyed saving up enormously and then putting the money in the bank every month.

This week however he announced "I've had a hard week mummy I need to spend some money at KMart!" He has had a bad week with me being in hospital and having to give up breastfeeding, but I'm surprised that he knew!

Anyway he bought a wooden train for $20 and paid all in 20cent pieces. He was so thrilled with himself, but has now announced he is saving up for fish food.

Retail therapy at 2? PMSL
Been in hospital bobbybob? Nothing too serious I hope, you OK?

Fish have now been named

Whitey
That one
The other one

I was in hospital with pneumonia, they messed up the IV and it leaked into my arm, so I am also sporting a rather fetching neck brace to support the weight of my dead arm.

I love Bob ... he's hilarious.

My parents got two kittens years ago when my brother was 2. He was having a tantrum about something or other and to distract him my mum tried to get him to name the kittens. When she picked up one of them and said, "Now, what shall we call this one?" My brother screamed, "Nothing!". So my mum put the cat down and said, "Ok, that one is called Nothing, so what shall we call the other one?"
"Something?" said Bruv.

So we had two cats called Something and Nothing.

Poor you re. pneumonia ... are you well on the mend now? Bummer about dead arm, sounds awful ... won't be playing the flute for a while then?

My students are trying to take advantage of my dead arm, "Oh, it's so difficult when you can't demonstrate it". To which my reply was "No, It's difficult because you won't practise and can't count".

Fish now renamed;

whitey
That one
Number 7

Never heard of using a pasta jar before but what a fabbo idea that I'm going to use straight away. My DD (7, might not make 8) would test the patience of a saint at the moment and has to have the last word in everything.

The other day she was moaning (as usual) about brushing her teeth. This is a daily battle without fail that is beginning to drive me insane, particularly when DS (5 months and teething) has had me up half the night. She told me it 'just isn't fair' that she has to brush her teeth every day. I told her it 'just isn't fair' that I have to cook tea every day but that's life. She thought for a bit and then gave me a list of all the days in the past two weeks when daddy had made the tea or bought a take-away ...... and she was absolutely accurate

I'm going to use the pasta jar for no arguing and back-chat so if my little one thinks she can save up even £10 for anything, she'll be waiting a long while at the rate she's going

Thanks for the idea and hope you're better soon bobbybob. You haven't been giving DD lessons in how to answer back have you

Another fan here, though it has been out of use recenlty. Back I will come on Tuesday methinks! Need to get it re-established before I get a gobby little oik once ds1 starts school the following week!

busywizzy - my ds also hates brushing his teeth. i have recently brought in a new rule - he has the choice of whether or not to brush his teeth. if he chooses not to that means he cannot have any sugar or sweet stuff that day. including biscuits, juice (he doesnt know its sugar free anyway), fizzy drinks, fruit, yogurt, sweets, tomato sauce etc etc. since we started there has not been one day he has missed. we do get a bit of whinging but too much and the no sugar rule stands anyway.

I love this too! Used pasta before he started school and now use pennies for ds which has a better effect for him! Can normally get 5 days now where he is good and gets full 10 pennies and then 2 days where he struggles.(DS starts day with 10 pennies and loses a certain amount depending on behaviour etc...)
Do use pasta for the children i childmind and the parents love it!

we started this week for the first time

so far its working very well

Soupy you are a genie-arse (genius)