During this time when we're all practicing social distancing, we're also looking for ways to cope with the day to day and what has become our new normal. Being trapped in the house all day with our children, becoming homeschool parents overnight while we're all trying to work from home, too, has been nothing short of a challenge. The coronavirus outbreak has made the daily lives of us all so different than what we're used to be - it's even changing how pregnant women are navigating their birth plans. It's a lot to digest.
One thing that we all kind of expected to happen is how our kids turn to food and snacking whenever they get bored. And let's face it, we can only keep them entertained for so many hours within the day, so boredom happens. And for those of us who are quarantined or self-quarantined, food is limited because we're all trying to stay in and avoid the grocery stores as much as possible.
So a fellow mom dealing with the same thing posted a now viral solution to this problem that also keeps kids busy, active and learning about money all at the same time. We give her a virtual elbow tap.
Mom, Stephanie Craig shared her solution on Facebook, and we're all running around trying to copy her entire set-up.
Just like many of us, she shared that she's working from home for the next three weeks. She posted two photos, side by side, sharing how she's using Monopoly money to have her son do things like chores, exercise and laundry. Each item on her chart has a monetary value. Her son will be rewarded whenever he completes a task.
"I have ONE child. Y’all mommas with one child know how bored they can get. During my working hours the store is open, he can buy TV time, Xbox time and game time. Obviously next week we’ll start a home curriculum in place of school and this will change up a little!" She captioned the photos.
He can save his money up and earn things like snacks, screen time and more. The viral post has had 83,000 likes so far and shared 280,000 times. It also has 87 comments that are all pretty much praising Craig's creative idea.
People are saying things like, "Stole this idea, but used a deck of cards instead! My whole house is spotless," and "Dishes should for sure be worth a bag of chips! NOBODY likes doin dishes!" Craig even chimed in whenever she started getting some negative private messages and shared, "Should I tell these ppl now or later that my kid has only done 1.5 chores?"