Cereal....Who Knew?

When I was growing up sugar cereal was non-existent in our house.

I envied other kids who could open a cupboard to the glories of Fruit Loops and Lucky Charms.

Oh how I longed for that sugary goodness to coat my mouth at the breakfast table.

No worries. It wasn't that we never got it.  We simply had to win 1st or 2nd place in the City Championship Swim Meet and then we could pick whatever cereal we wanted!  (You'd better believe that was the driving force behind me becoming as good of a swimmer as I was.  I got to pick my own cereal 4 times. :)  You also had to carefully HIDE your cereal once you won it so your sneaky older siblings wouldn't gobble it down.)

So I think I thought when I first became a mom I wouldn't deprive my children of such things, and sugar cereal became the most common breakfast we had. (I hadn't yet discovered the wisdom of my mother's ways).

Oh, I had standards.  No Cocoa Puffs or Cookie Crisp (for the most part), but Lucky Charms was pretty much a staple.

Before long I realized my children were sort of demanding such things.

"MOM, why didn't you get more Lucky Charms?!?!"

The more I thought about this and examined their behavior in general, the more I realized I didn't quite like how they were turning out.  And I knew, of course, that was mostly my fault at this point in time.

First I started becoming Chinese, established "skills", and became more disciplined in my parenting.

Major, MAJOR improvements in their behavior.

Round about this time we also removed not just sugar cereal, but pretty much all cereal after realizing that high fructose corn syrup is in EVERYTHING and it started to really gross me out.

There was actually not a ton of complaining when I straight forward told them we wouldn't be having it anymore and why.  (Food Inc. and Michael Pollen, I blame thank you.)

Now I have started a morning chore chart where they can earn tokens for certain prizes.  There are only certain things that can earn them tokens and other chores they simply have to do.  If they complain about those chores they lose a token.

I have never seen such motivation in all of them, but Owen especially.  He is up at the crack of dawn making his bed & making sure his room is clean.  It's amazing to see him so motivated and focused.

Anyway, the whole point of this story is this.  For 25 tokens (which would be the equivalent of never missing a single job for 2 1/2 weeks) you can pick out your own box of cereal.  The night after we introduced the new program I overheard Morgan discussing with Owen the possibilities.

"Owen," she said in her gravely voice, "I bet when you pick a cereal you can pick a sugary one!"

"Yeah, I know." He said.  I could almost hear him day dreaming about it.

There are a lot of different prizes they can work towards, including $5 cash or a night out for ice cream.  But the biggest motivator proves to be that elusive box of cereal.

My Mom knew it all along. :)