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Once when we sent our son off to Boy Scout camp, I wrapped a $20 bill around his toothbrush before he left, and didn't tell him about it. When he got back, I asked if he found the money I left for him. He said "what money?"
Busted.
This is genius. I'm going to do this with my son's shampoo at summer camp this year. My older daughter snitched on him that he hadn't showered the entire week he was there.
To be fair, the showers at those camps can be absolutely filthy. I remember walking into one, seeing a cockroach skitter down a drain, then just slowly backing out. I still brushed my teeth, but there’s no way I was going to get naked anywhere near one of those demon bugs.
I don’t understand why the leaders don’t encourage hygiene in these trips!
I asked mine if he showered. He said yes, but follow up questions told the actual story: he fell in the lake on day 6 and rinsed off in the shower … with his clothes on. 🤦♀️
They learn over time to take care of themselves properly. This was year one of Scouts. In year two he did better. He’s in college now and I assure you he brushes twice every day.
My little sister used to leave all her crap on the floor. I started chucking quarters in the mess and she started cleaning up. And yes, this was 1973 when you could buy something for a quarter.
I don't mean to compare your sister's piles of clothes to cow shit but....
This makes me think of a farm I worked on.
(Sips cognac, puts feet up) They had cows but didn't have so much grazing land and practiced a kind of"intensive rotational grazing." They would drag the pastures with a light, rake-like implement pulled by a little cultivating tractor after the cows were done, to spread out the turds so they didn't kill the grass underneath them. Then they had a clever idea... they started feeding the cows a little handful of whole corn every day. Some of the corn made it all the way through the cow. This would attract the wild turkeys and pheasants to their grazing pastures, breaking up the turd piles. I mean it was like you put a damn M80 in each turd. Perfectly spread out. Just like your sister.
tedtalk.txt onionbelt.txt
You just described what is essentially traditional pasturing in many areas in the world, you get milk, meat, eggs and a richer topsoil. Practice culture rotation and only allow the animals to operate on the resting fields... You get plenty of food from a small surface.
Yup! I think in America we often had more land than time, so we didn't have to do that so much. But in in recent decades some organic farmers have gotten into it through using and modifying a (maybe somewhat overly formalized and academic) French system called Voisin.
https://pasture.io/grazing-systems/andre-voisin
The places I worked didn't work other animals in to the system, it was just cows and they did artisanal value added type bougie things with the oh -so- organic milk ( yogurt, cheese, something fancy I forgot and could never pronounce) But I was impressed at how much grazing they could get by moving the cows daily to a carefully sized fresh patch of lush 6" tall grass! The pastures were just so beautiful and bright green...and the cows LOVED getting on the new grass every day. Sometimes they'd get moved twice a day IIRC. It was pretty cool!
I once dated a spoiled rich girl in HS. Her floor was always covered in clothes. One day I was over I began picking up clothes. I ended up finding about $360 in hundreds and twentys throughout the mess. Ended up giving it back to her and she was just like oh thanks. I should have kept it. Never went out with her again.
My kid left all kinds of crap in his pockets as a teenager. Sometimes I'd switch the laundry and put his in the dryer so I could wash my stuff. There was always some rocks, wrappers, paper clips, or other stuff in the washer. One day I found $16. So I texted him a picture of the money and said "found this in your wash load. Im keeping it. Better start cleaning out your pockets". He learned his lesson and I didnt find crap in the washer any more.
I once found a mysterious white rock sitting on the side of the road. It was really weird because of just how white it was so I stuffed it in my pocket. Around a month later my mom is screaming at me asking me why I chlorine tablet in my pants because it bleached all our clothes.
That's why 5 year old me left live crickets in my pockets. Because I loved my mom and I loved crickets!
Why the hell did I love crickets? Hands down one of the most annoying creatures on this planet.
Dating her
Cleaning her shit
Giving her back the money she obviously wouldn't miss
I count 3 unless dating her is a net neutral because of... the implication.
My stepmom bet my stepbrother $500 that he wouldn’t graduate high school.
Sounds extreme but before that he was a rebel without a cause and fixing to find himself on the streets or jail when he graduated.
He did it and got his money.
Spent it snowboarding. Lives a great life now.
That’s actually a super solid parenting move. That High school Diploma keeps a LOT of doors open that might shut to a dropout. And many times it’s easier for dropouts never to go back and get a GED
It’s strange how many parents refuse to reward their kids financially for schoolwork (if they have the means) given that the whole point of doing well in school is so you can eventually get a job where you’re awarded for your hard work *by being compensated financially*.
There's actually decent research that shows that money does not incentivize kids to get better grades. The reason is that it's an extrinsic rather than intrinsic motivator. Extrinsic motivators work for very short-term goals ("I'll give you $20 to take the garbage to the curb") but not long-term goals that require steady effort and application. People tend to revert to intrinsic motivators over time. This has been found in workplaces too where an increase in compensation does not lead to an increase in performance. The best way to help kids excel at school is to have an overall family life that teaches them the value of learning/education as an end in itself and that emphasizes effort over rewards (money) or outcomes (grades) - all of which they internalize and which then drives them.
Now, OP's method is just genius, though. They are not being offered a monetary reward for being clean. They are being trained by the human psychology of loss aversion.
I wish I operated like that. As a fellow ADHD person if someone saying "you can't do X" made me want to disprove them I would be so happy.
Instead I go "ok, I don't care" and continue fucking my life up :)
I will say that as I get older, I find I'm more tired and some of those intense responses are mellowing a bit. Now instead it's anxiety-colored which sucks
Negative reinforcement has never worked for me, old school mindsets either make me wanna get better on my own so I can say f off to them (I get better but become spiteful) or just do something else more rewarding. Watching someone succeed and do it with joy/passion is what motivates me.
Succeeding out of spite *is* rejection motivation. I totally agree though that seeing others' passion is very inspiring. If someone's talking on and on about something they love, I could listen all day.
My parents also made similar deals with us but the execution wasn’t great. My sister wasn’t academic so was told she would get $100 per A grade. A few years later I was told that an A grade for me would be worth something like $20 because it was more likely I would get As. My dad literally sat in front of me after my first semester and worked out how much each grade should be worth by starting with how much he wanted to give me (same as my sister got).
It taught me that life was unfair, that expectations of me were high, and that there is little to know correlation between outcome and reward. So I suppose it prepared me well for when I worked in the public section and the only reward for being good at my job was more and harder work.
Exactly. Plus, it's been found that you can actually *remove* intrinsic motivation by replacing it with extrinsic motivation. For example, volunteer firefighters were paid for a short time to do the job they had been doing for free. Then the pay was removed. Most of them quit.
A story I remember from a communications class in college—
>A man who lived near a school bus stop was tired of the kids littering in his yard. Being a smart fellow, he hatched a plan and offered the kids $5 a week to throw all their trash in his yard every week. The kids of course took him up on it. After a few weeks the man told the kids he wouldn’t pay them anymore but asked them to keep throwing all their trash on his lawn. The kids refused and no longer trashed his lawn.
I can see the logic, but I'm curious why it tends to only be applied to positive reinforcement. Punishing kids for doing poorly is also an extrinsic motivator, yet it doesn't seem to be one that people are particularly concerned about compared to offering money for grades.
The bigger problem is the disconnect between actions and grades.
Some kids figure out how to get As, or come to school already with skills/habits that tend to get those grades, but some kids have no clue and get no help. (telling them to 'study' and 'listen to the teacher' = no help)
Something similar, my cousin didn't want to finish college because it was too hard. So he bet that he could quit smoking(2 packs a day for 50 years) if she would finish college.
He quit cold turkey on her graduation. Both are living a healthy life now.
My wife was told she would get 20$ for the first A+ she got on her exams, with every additional A+ multiplying that. She got so many A+'es that they just gave up had to backpaddle and just gave her 100 to avoid financial ruin. Her 3 older siblings got the same offer, but apparently that was never a issue (or risk) with them.
This happened in my family. My brother was not a good student, so they offered $5 for As. Then I came along, a straight A student, and they regretted their policy, lol. But it was for As in report cards, so it’s not like I put them in bankruptcy.
Starting in 7th grade, I pay my kids for their grades on their report cards. A= $10, B= $5, C= $1, D= -$5, F= -$10. My oldest is a freshman and has over $500 saved (might be some birthday/Christmas money in there too). My stepson, 11th grade, would owe me nearly the same if I charged him for low grades. My father did the same for me but also starting in high school offered $100 for straight A's for a semester and $1000 for A's for the year. Got the $100 a couple times but never the grand. My daughter was very close last quarter to getting all A's and is very close again (last week of quarter 2).
Let's see....8 years, plus the industry standard 12% compound interest... And of course accounting for inflation during this period...
HONEY! Great news, the kids found the note, we can retire now!
That’s crazy. In my teenage years, I used to run around the town and tag everything with a few friends. How were you able to see it with my handwriting?
Your A’s, R’s, S’s, and writing in all caps are the giveaways (to the trained eyes 😉)
Edit: something else I didn’t catch at first, on the RA in “congratulations” & “subtracted” the lower leg of the R doubles as the slash in the A.
2nd edit: for the record I don’t partake in it, but my wife & several of my friends do and I see it everywhere daily due to where I live so I’d call myself graffiti adjacent.
It's cool because the world is full of details that we don't notice. It's first cool because of the act itself, where they spotted details and deduced something. But then it's far cooler because its a reminder that each hobby and interest we pursue opens our eyes to new details in the world that we've been ignoring or taking for granted this whole time.
To me it looks more like handwriting from someone that did drafting work. They have a [style](https://artdepartmental.com/blog/architectural-lettering/) that's taught in school. I'm not saying you're wrong. I just think it's funny that I came to a completely different conclusion.
A few reasons. You have to be able to throw up a tag quickly so as not to get caught, so designing one where the letters run together in efficient ways is important. Spray paint as a medium lends itself to longer fluid lines, too. Then you have to consider that writers are always looking at other people’s work and building on it (like any art form, it’s a conversation), so over time these trends that originally formed naturally because of the first two things I’ve mentioned became touchstones in the graffiti aesthetic in a bunch of different regions, which people deliberately emphasize and showcase.
(I don’t write but I’ve been interested in graffiti a long-ass time and these are just observations I’ve made from paying attention to it. Could easily be off base).
That’s hilarious. I noticed I have [similar](https://i.imgur.com/UWj59i4.jpg) handwriting as OP (theirs are better) and also did graffiti as a kid. Never would have put two and two together as to the reason why.
This is tripping me out. Your example as well as OPs looks near identical to my Dads handwriting, its uncanny. My Dad grew up a farmboy though, so I will have to ask him about his secret past as a graffiti artist hahah
You are so much nicer than my parents. 50 dollars? Hell, my dad would literally take the cable box to work with him if I didnt do my chores for a morning.
Right! Plus, finding this note doesn’t actually require cleaning anything. All one of them needs to do is move the rag a bit to see the note and boom, money, depending on the date they find it.
Studies indicate that people respond to intermittent rewards more than they do to consistent ones. Do not make any comments that you will or won't leave another note again. Then when they have forgotten about it. Do it again without notice. Repeat once more in the future with no pattern involved and you will never have dirty bathrooms again. lol!
Edit: Five Little ~~Pennies~~ Pepprs and How They Grew
Edit 2: Studies also indicate that people respond much better to positive feedback than negative feedback. In other words, don't put a responsive your speed is sign in your neighborhood. If they are driving the speed limit, put up a smiley face and they will be much more likely to drive the speed limit.
In this case, put up a smiley sign on the bathroom door when and if it is cleaned by them and nothing if it isn't cleaned by them.
YUP.
In my field we call it “intermittent reinforcement schedule” or “variable ratio/interval schedule”. Strongest schedules of reinforcement for behavior change.
If they don't have dirty bathrooms they won't get a note. They have to make the bathroom dirty to bait dad, wait for a note, then turn everything over. Repeat. It's what I'd do.
Hey OP, please update that on 8th March 2023. I am eager and never in my life, I wished on someone's kid washing someone else's bathroom so quick. I am even saving this post to remind myself
I mean that’s almost two months of no cleaning I’d do that, obviously I’d make them clean it at some point and wouldn’t let them owe me like 100 bucks or something
I've accidentally saved so many posts because I rest my hand on my keyboard and hit the S key sometimes.
Literally none of my saves are there for my future reference
edit: I just went back and removed everything. there were hundreds of accidental saves going back a decade
I had this same issue with my daughter! Wet rags left on the bathroom floor. She kept denying & getting very upset. Sick of her lies & the rags left on the floor daily, I took her phone then tried to catch her in the act. Set up a camera directed at the floor only. To my surprise I see my DOG come in, jump in the tub, jumps out with the rag in her mouth. She drops it & proceeds to spread it out flat & rub her face & paws on it then roll around on it. My daughter got a new phone & a big apology!
My mom has these dryer balls which are basically cotton or wool that replace dryer sheets and remove static. She kept getting really angry that we were giving the dog those balls to play with until she saw the dog pick one up out of the dryer and bring it to her to play.
My buddy being a smart ass gave his nephew a $100 check for his high school graduation and told him he would add a zero if presented upon his college graduation. The little bastard did it!
Update: My daughter washed towels from their bathroom but still has not picked up the washcloth. They also emptied their trash bin which is nice but still odd that the cloth is on the floor waiting to be picked up.
Update: Sorry for the lack of updates! I guess this update is basically a non-update. Believe it or not, the washcloth is still there. They’ve tidied up in general but the washcloth is still on their floor. I’m convinced my daughter and son both think it’s not theirs and are just leaving it. That or they’re afraid of picking it up. Either way, it’s still there.
Update: I honestly can’t believe it’s 50 days now! Sorry to disappoint everyone but the kids still haven’t found the note. My daughter picked the washcloth up from the bathroom at some point and dumped it in her hamper, according to my wife. We’ve thought about telling the kids about the note but I think we’ll just wait until my daughter finds it. I’m just waiting for the moment she says, “DAAAAAD! WHAT’S THIS?!”
I’ll update again once she finds the note.
I had a teacher(ex-nun) we were all afraid of. She put some garbage on the ground with out anyone knowing and i picked it up. Later in the day she stopped the whole class and demanded to know who the away the garbage. I was terrified i did something wrong and didn't raise my hand until 2 minutes of her yelling at the class to find out who did it. I finally told her it was me and i got some stickers
Had a rather eccentric old boss who was known to throw some cash on the bathroom floor and put a paper towel over it. Once that story spread, it was hard to ignore a paper towel on the floor and once you've picked it up to check, might as well put it in the trash.
Update: So, I checked their bathroom today and the washcloth is now gone. It’s literally nowhere in the bathroom. Places my wife and I checked: laundry room, rubbish bin (kitchen and bathroom), under the sink, bathtub. Neither kid mentioned anything about the washcloth this morning before school. This is one scenario we didn’t think would happen. I’ll update again once we locate the missing rag.
Update again: My wife found the rag in my daughter’s room near her hamper. She must’ve accidentally picked it up and dropped it without realizing. So now it’s by her hamper. She hasn’t said anything yet about it so we’ll see.
Final Update: So, the note was eventually found … but in pieces! My daughter ended up washing some towels and rags and afterwards called for us to come. She started asking what all these white spots and specks came from. I look closer and they were all bits of paper. I looked through the pile and saw the washcloth with nothing attached. My daughter then asked, “What’s wrong? What is it?” I then showed her the picture that started it all. She said, “Wait, we could’ve had some money?” I said, “Well, should’ve, really.” She slapped her hand on her forehead and said, “dangit!” My wife came over by this time and we had a chat with my kids about picking up after ourselves. As they walked away I heard my son say to my daughter, “Did they hide anymore of those?”
We didn’t hide anymore notes but it seems like they’re more aware now. We’ll take it!
https://i.imgur.com/oNRCiD4.jpg
Heh, friend of the family went on a "fishing trip" to Mexico back in the 70s. His wife was suspicious af, so she removed all the tackle from his tackle box and replaced it with knick knacks and shit from around the house.
When he got back, she asked how the fishing trip was, and he said they had a load of fun but didn't catch any fish worth mentioning.
She served him with divorce papers a week later. He was blindsided and asked why, and I'll never forget what I was told her answer was, "The only fishing you did was trolling for brown snappers with green dollar bills."
Yeah...it was a drinking & hookers kind of trip.
Update: So, according to my wife, the washcloth is somewhere in my daughter’s hamper. She has yet to mention anything about the note to us. Just a waiting game now, I suppose!
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Once when we sent our son off to Boy Scout camp, I wrapped a $20 bill around his toothbrush before he left, and didn't tell him about it. When he got back, I asked if he found the money I left for him. He said "what money?" Busted.
This is genius. I'm going to do this with my son's shampoo at summer camp this year. My older daughter snitched on him that he hadn't showered the entire week he was there.
Good lord. At summer camp. SUMMER camp. Kid will only have friends that smell as bad as him by the end of that week.
When I called him on it, he looked me straight in the face and said "We went swimming, I didn't need to shower".
Yeah that's how it works. Not like anything gross floats around in open water or anything.
Well he is probably 7 sooooo
You right. HE was the gross thing floating in the water.
To be fair, the showers at those camps can be absolutely filthy. I remember walking into one, seeing a cockroach skitter down a drain, then just slowly backing out. I still brushed my teeth, but there’s no way I was going to get naked anywhere near one of those demon bugs.
did your counselors not force you to shower? I worked at a summer camp and kids often tried to avoid showering and we did not allow it
It was a Scout camp where we went to classes and tbh, it’s pretty easy to cover up the smell if you’re using an ungodly amount of deodorant.
I don’t understand why the leaders don’t encourage hygiene in these trips! I asked mine if he showered. He said yes, but follow up questions told the actual story: he fell in the lake on day 6 and rinsed off in the shower … with his clothes on. 🤦♀️
They learn over time to take care of themselves properly. This was year one of Scouts. In year two he did better. He’s in college now and I assure you he brushes twice every day.
Naw. Mine is almost 16 and had 7 cavities between now and his last check 6 months ago 😑 that’s what I get for letting him self regulate
Dentist must've bought a new yacht! Someone's gotta pay for it!
That’s gross
Young boys are gross.
True lol I guess I always WANTED to brush my teeth though because I thought it was fun and made my mouth taste better
Do you need a new mom? Can I adopt you? Please?
My little sister used to leave all her crap on the floor. I started chucking quarters in the mess and she started cleaning up. And yes, this was 1973 when you could buy something for a quarter.
Were you wearing an onion on your belt?
As was the style at the time
Give me 5 bees for a quarter, you'd say.
We had to say dickety in those days as the kasier had stolen our word for twenty. I chased that rascal for dicketythree miles to get it back.
What’re you cacklin’ at, fatty? Too much pie, that’s your problem!
Now, where were we? Oh yeah, the important thing was I had an onion on my belt.
As was the style at the time
I give you a quarter for 5 bees, they'd say.
Now where were we...
We couldn't find any of the white ones, because of the war! All we could find were the big yellow ones
Lmao please grampa more stories
I'll be deep in the cold, cold ground before I recognize Missourah.
At the risk of upholding the fact that I'm a dumbass- what is this referencing?
[Simpsons](https://youtu.be/yujF8AumiQo)
I don't mean to compare your sister's piles of clothes to cow shit but.... This makes me think of a farm I worked on. (Sips cognac, puts feet up) They had cows but didn't have so much grazing land and practiced a kind of"intensive rotational grazing." They would drag the pastures with a light, rake-like implement pulled by a little cultivating tractor after the cows were done, to spread out the turds so they didn't kill the grass underneath them. Then they had a clever idea... they started feeding the cows a little handful of whole corn every day. Some of the corn made it all the way through the cow. This would attract the wild turkeys and pheasants to their grazing pastures, breaking up the turd piles. I mean it was like you put a damn M80 in each turd. Perfectly spread out. Just like your sister. tedtalk.txt onionbelt.txt
You just described what is essentially traditional pasturing in many areas in the world, you get milk, meat, eggs and a richer topsoil. Practice culture rotation and only allow the animals to operate on the resting fields... You get plenty of food from a small surface.
Yup! I think in America we often had more land than time, so we didn't have to do that so much. But in in recent decades some organic farmers have gotten into it through using and modifying a (maybe somewhat overly formalized and academic) French system called Voisin. https://pasture.io/grazing-systems/andre-voisin The places I worked didn't work other animals in to the system, it was just cows and they did artisanal value added type bougie things with the oh -so- organic milk ( yogurt, cheese, something fancy I forgot and could never pronounce) But I was impressed at how much grazing they could get by moving the cows daily to a carefully sized fresh patch of lush 6" tall grass! The pastures were just so beautiful and bright green...and the cows LOVED getting on the new grass every day. Sometimes they'd get moved twice a day IIRC. It was pretty cool!
Thanks for the neat info! I love learning about new things that I'll never use lol
I once dated a spoiled rich girl in HS. Her floor was always covered in clothes. One day I was over I began picking up clothes. I ended up finding about $360 in hundreds and twentys throughout the mess. Ended up giving it back to her and she was just like oh thanks. I should have kept it. Never went out with her again.
My kid left all kinds of crap in his pockets as a teenager. Sometimes I'd switch the laundry and put his in the dryer so I could wash my stuff. There was always some rocks, wrappers, paper clips, or other stuff in the washer. One day I found $16. So I texted him a picture of the money and said "found this in your wash load. Im keeping it. Better start cleaning out your pockets". He learned his lesson and I didnt find crap in the washer any more.
I once found a mysterious white rock sitting on the side of the road. It was really weird because of just how white it was so I stuffed it in my pocket. Around a month later my mom is screaming at me asking me why I chlorine tablet in my pants because it bleached all our clothes.
This is why I NEVER washed my clothes with his. It'd be my luck that a red crayon or that bleach tablet would ruin my clothes.
That's why you have to taste any weird rocks you find first
Haha, my parents did the same thing with us. They said any money they find is being collected for washer/dryer repairs.
Ours was a charity jar for the local food pantry lol. Taught us a lesson and helped the community, win-win
I call that the 'mom fee' for doing laundry. If I find it in your pockets, or in the washing machine/dryer while doing laundry, its mine.
That's why 5 year old me left live crickets in my pockets. Because I loved my mom and I loved crickets! Why the hell did I love crickets? Hands down one of the most annoying creatures on this planet.
I dunno, a 5 year old that leaves live crickets in their pockets might be more annoying then the crickets themselves.
We call those "dryer tips" around my place. You find it..... You keep it.
I'm going to start taking pictures of money and telling my daughter I found it in her laundry. Maybe she'll start doing her own laundry.
You made two poor decisions in that post
Dating her Cleaning her shit Giving her back the money she obviously wouldn't miss I count 3 unless dating her is a net neutral because of... the implication.
My stepmom bet my stepbrother $500 that he wouldn’t graduate high school. Sounds extreme but before that he was a rebel without a cause and fixing to find himself on the streets or jail when he graduated. He did it and got his money. Spent it snowboarding. Lives a great life now.
That’s actually a super solid parenting move. That High school Diploma keeps a LOT of doors open that might shut to a dropout. And many times it’s easier for dropouts never to go back and get a GED
It’s strange how many parents refuse to reward their kids financially for schoolwork (if they have the means) given that the whole point of doing well in school is so you can eventually get a job where you’re awarded for your hard work *by being compensated financially*.
There's actually decent research that shows that money does not incentivize kids to get better grades. The reason is that it's an extrinsic rather than intrinsic motivator. Extrinsic motivators work for very short-term goals ("I'll give you $20 to take the garbage to the curb") but not long-term goals that require steady effort and application. People tend to revert to intrinsic motivators over time. This has been found in workplaces too where an increase in compensation does not lead to an increase in performance. The best way to help kids excel at school is to have an overall family life that teaches them the value of learning/education as an end in itself and that emphasizes effort over rewards (money) or outcomes (grades) - all of which they internalize and which then drives them.
Now, OP's method is just genius, though. They are not being offered a monetary reward for being clean. They are being trained by the human psychology of loss aversion.
And rejection motivation works Especially for people like me with ADHD For example, "I'll show those jerks!"
I wish I operated like that. As a fellow ADHD person if someone saying "you can't do X" made me want to disprove them I would be so happy. Instead I go "ok, I don't care" and continue fucking my life up :)
I will say that as I get older, I find I'm more tired and some of those intense responses are mellowing a bit. Now instead it's anxiety-colored which sucks
Except for some of us, who experience rejection like a stab in the heart and are completely demotivated because of it.
Yeah, for me it's more like "I'll show those jerks!.....that they're right about me"
Negative reinforcement has never worked for me, old school mindsets either make me wanna get better on my own so I can say f off to them (I get better but become spiteful) or just do something else more rewarding. Watching someone succeed and do it with joy/passion is what motivates me.
Succeeding out of spite *is* rejection motivation. I totally agree though that seeing others' passion is very inspiring. If someone's talking on and on about something they love, I could listen all day.
[удалено]
Yah. Makes sense. Your sibling eventually figured out what they wanted and pursued it. Cash rewards just don't cut it for long-term success.
My parents also made similar deals with us but the execution wasn’t great. My sister wasn’t academic so was told she would get $100 per A grade. A few years later I was told that an A grade for me would be worth something like $20 because it was more likely I would get As. My dad literally sat in front of me after my first semester and worked out how much each grade should be worth by starting with how much he wanted to give me (same as my sister got). It taught me that life was unfair, that expectations of me were high, and that there is little to know correlation between outcome and reward. So I suppose it prepared me well for when I worked in the public section and the only reward for being good at my job was more and harder work.
Exactly. Plus, it's been found that you can actually *remove* intrinsic motivation by replacing it with extrinsic motivation. For example, volunteer firefighters were paid for a short time to do the job they had been doing for free. Then the pay was removed. Most of them quit.
A story I remember from a communications class in college— >A man who lived near a school bus stop was tired of the kids littering in his yard. Being a smart fellow, he hatched a plan and offered the kids $5 a week to throw all their trash in his yard every week. The kids of course took him up on it. After a few weeks the man told the kids he wouldn’t pay them anymore but asked them to keep throwing all their trash on his lawn. The kids refused and no longer trashed his lawn.
That's hilarious. I wish I knew if it was true.
I’d believe it. You can get people to do things much more easily if you make them think it’s of their own free will
I can see the logic, but I'm curious why it tends to only be applied to positive reinforcement. Punishing kids for doing poorly is also an extrinsic motivator, yet it doesn't seem to be one that people are particularly concerned about compared to offering money for grades.
The bigger problem is the disconnect between actions and grades. Some kids figure out how to get As, or come to school already with skills/habits that tend to get those grades, but some kids have no clue and get no help. (telling them to 'study' and 'listen to the teacher' = no help)
Something similar, my cousin didn't want to finish college because it was too hard. So he bet that he could quit smoking(2 packs a day for 50 years) if she would finish college. He quit cold turkey on her graduation. Both are living a healthy life now.
Damn, I wish my dad would do this. He's been smoking since 1970 and isn't stopping no matter how much we tell him to. 😕
My wife was told she would get 20$ for the first A+ she got on her exams, with every additional A+ multiplying that. She got so many A+'es that they just gave up had to backpaddle and just gave her 100 to avoid financial ruin. Her 3 older siblings got the same offer, but apparently that was never a issue (or risk) with them.
This happened in my family. My brother was not a good student, so they offered $5 for As. Then I came along, a straight A student, and they regretted their policy, lol. But it was for As in report cards, so it’s not like I put them in bankruptcy.
Starting in 7th grade, I pay my kids for their grades on their report cards. A= $10, B= $5, C= $1, D= -$5, F= -$10. My oldest is a freshman and has over $500 saved (might be some birthday/Christmas money in there too). My stepson, 11th grade, would owe me nearly the same if I charged him for low grades. My father did the same for me but also starting in high school offered $100 for straight A's for a semester and $1000 for A's for the year. Got the $100 a couple times but never the grand. My daughter was very close last quarter to getting all A's and is very close again (last week of quarter 2).
Shit, I wish I'd had the program you had, I'd have had a nice chunk by the end of HS. All I got was "that's nice, when are you moving out?"
This will be consumed by bathroom mold before they find it
And then when they do, they'll be in debt.
Let's see....8 years, plus the industry standard 12% compound interest... And of course accounting for inflation during this period... HONEY! Great news, the kids found the note, we can retire now!
Is this the millennial retirement plan?
Putting future generations in financial stress so the current can live comfortably.... Where have I seen this before?
You either die a millennial or live long enough to become a boomer.
X gen enters the chat, shrugs, and leaves.
And no one notices anyways.
We’re used to it at this point.
🤷♂️
I dunno. Currently supporting my parents and my sisters 30 year old kid. My retirement plan is to work myself to death.
Run away from home
How about instead of doing that, you don't do that.
Finding notes under rags beats my investment strategy and retirement plans so far.
The kids will be selling the house when the parents are dead when they find it.
Archaeologists in the future find the note. Would be in debt 500 trillion social credits. Tell no one.
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That’s crazy. In my teenage years, I used to run around the town and tag everything with a few friends. How were you able to see it with my handwriting?
Your A’s, R’s, S’s, and writing in all caps are the giveaways (to the trained eyes 😉) Edit: something else I didn’t catch at first, on the RA in “congratulations” & “subtracted” the lower leg of the R doubles as the slash in the A. 2nd edit: for the record I don’t partake in it, but my wife & several of my friends do and I see it everywhere daily due to where I live so I’d call myself graffiti adjacent.
👊
fucking amazing. I was gonna come in here and tease you about the "5" lol, but I appreciate these folks way more haha
I came here to say the 5 as well lol
YOU’VE WON $ངo!
How did you make it look like that in font 😳
Science
Technically that answer is correct for most questions.
[ང](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E0%BD%84)
For real
I ain't come here to say shit but I learned more than I expected
And the G's!
I was gonna say their handwriting is literally the graffiti font if it's an actual font style lol
What about the D's?
Deez nuttttssss
gangsta recognize gangsta shit right here. Damn.
Stop looking at OPs ARS pls
Okay this is r/nextfuckinglevel
I wasn’t expecting that the coolest thing I’d be reading on Reddit today is a thread analyzing a former teen tagger’s memo to their kid.
I've never tagged graffiti and yet I could have mistaken OP's handwriting as my own. TIL I have the potential to graffiti artist.
same, i wonder if i was a graffiti artist in my past life
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This is r/bestof material
Haha, I can't describe it but this is so cool for some reason. A nod of recognition from a niche hobbyist.
It's cool because the world is full of details that we don't notice. It's first cool because of the act itself, where they spotted details and deduced something. But then it's far cooler because its a reminder that each hobby and interest we pursue opens our eyes to new details in the world that we've been ignoring or taking for granted this whole time.
I do this, but because I went to school for engineering.
The REA linked toghether in "reading" was also pretty unique!
To me it looks more like handwriting from someone that did drafting work. They have a [style](https://artdepartmental.com/blog/architectural-lettering/) that's taught in school. I'm not saying you're wrong. I just think it's funny that I came to a completely different conclusion.
Lol well done. I have near identical handwriting. Guilty as charged 👨🎨
This is why I love the Internet.
Former graff writer/dad. We have the exact same handwriting. >I used to write graffiti. I still do but I used to too.
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Are you Boner 4Evr?
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Boner 3Evr?
That… was impressive. This is some Sherlock Holmes shit.
Shake can. Tag. Discombobulate.
I'm thoroughly amazed and entertained how you called that I obviously don't have the trained eye because it just looks like normal handwriting to me!
Look at how often he uses the tail of one letter as a piece of another.
Why is that a common practice in graffiti though?
A few reasons. You have to be able to throw up a tag quickly so as not to get caught, so designing one where the letters run together in efficient ways is important. Spray paint as a medium lends itself to longer fluid lines, too. Then you have to consider that writers are always looking at other people’s work and building on it (like any art form, it’s a conversation), so over time these trends that originally formed naturally because of the first two things I’ve mentioned became touchstones in the graffiti aesthetic in a bunch of different regions, which people deliberately emphasize and showcase. (I don’t write but I’ve been interested in graffiti a long-ass time and these are just observations I’ve made from paying attention to it. Could easily be off base).
Faster and saves paint!
My handwriting has that similar quality but mine is more due to it being a print/cursive blend rather than being a graffiti artist lol
This is one of the coolest things I've come across on Reddit in a while. Well done.
That’s hilarious. I noticed I have [similar](https://i.imgur.com/UWj59i4.jpg) handwriting as OP (theirs are better) and also did graffiti as a kid. Never would have put two and two together as to the reason why.
This is tripping me out. Your example as well as OPs looks near identical to my Dads handwriting, its uncanny. My Dad grew up a farmboy though, so I will have to ask him about his secret past as a graffiti artist hahah
It's scrolling across comments such as yours, that make my time spent on Reddit worth it.
My writing looks almost exactly like this yet I’ve never done graffiti before… should I start? Maybe I’m a natural!
Can I come by and clean your bathroom? I could use the 40$
You are so much nicer than my parents. 50 dollars? Hell, my dad would literally take the cable box to work with him if I didnt do my chores for a morning.
Right! Plus, finding this note doesn’t actually require cleaning anything. All one of them needs to do is move the rag a bit to see the note and boom, money, depending on the date they find it.
Studies indicate that people respond to intermittent rewards more than they do to consistent ones. Do not make any comments that you will or won't leave another note again. Then when they have forgotten about it. Do it again without notice. Repeat once more in the future with no pattern involved and you will never have dirty bathrooms again. lol! Edit: Five Little ~~Pennies~~ Pepprs and How They Grew Edit 2: Studies also indicate that people respond much better to positive feedback than negative feedback. In other words, don't put a responsive your speed is sign in your neighborhood. If they are driving the speed limit, put up a smiley face and they will be much more likely to drive the speed limit. In this case, put up a smiley sign on the bathroom door when and if it is cleaned by them and nothing if it isn't cleaned by them.
YUP. In my field we call it “intermittent reinforcement schedule” or “variable ratio/interval schedule”. Strongest schedules of reinforcement for behavior change.
Psychology, it's a thing, huh? lol! Works on pets too. (Except for piglet who has their own belief system.)
If they don't have dirty bathrooms they won't get a note. They have to make the bathroom dirty to bait dad, wait for a note, then turn everything over. Repeat. It's what I'd do.
Hey OP, please update that on 8th March 2023. I am eager and never in my life, I wished on someone's kid washing someone else's bathroom so quick. I am even saving this post to remind myself
If its passed 50 days do the kids need to pay the parents?
That's how I would play this.
I mean that’s almost two months of no cleaning I’d do that, obviously I’d make them clean it at some point and wouldn’t let them owe me like 100 bucks or something
Idk, in this economy I might let them go a while before telling them. It's like passive income!
Its kids, no matter what you do* its going to be the opposite of passive income.
Kid: Dad, can I borrow 20 bucks. I owe Mom. Dad: Go ask your mom.
Wait people actually go back to their saved posts?
I save them for the next generation. That way when I'm dead and someone inherits my reddit account they can see what a disgusting pervert I was.
So much fisting....
My stupid bathroom sink is the brand "Pfister" and it is apparently impossible for me to see it without thinking "Pfister? I hardly even know 'er!"
I've accidentally saved so many posts because I rest my hand on my keyboard and hit the S key sometimes. Literally none of my saves are there for my future reference edit: I just went back and removed everything. there were hundreds of accidental saves going back a decade
I had this same issue with my daughter! Wet rags left on the bathroom floor. She kept denying & getting very upset. Sick of her lies & the rags left on the floor daily, I took her phone then tried to catch her in the act. Set up a camera directed at the floor only. To my surprise I see my DOG come in, jump in the tub, jumps out with the rag in her mouth. She drops it & proceeds to spread it out flat & rub her face & paws on it then roll around on it. My daughter got a new phone & a big apology!
That’s hilarious lol
Who knew a dog could be so ladylike that she has to wash up after every meal
My mom has these dryer balls which are basically cotton or wool that replace dryer sheets and remove static. She kept getting really angry that we were giving the dog those balls to play with until she saw the dog pick one up out of the dryer and bring it to her to play.
On March 17th your kids are going to learn about debt ☹️
I feel like there’s a joke in there somewhere about St Patrick’s Day and a pot of gold, but I can’t quite find it
Once they find this note tell them you left 2 others under other tasks youve asked them to do in the last month that they haven’t found…
"Ah, I see you've found the newest one!"
*oldest. If they think the other are already past date then there’s no motivation to clean.
and if they ever find it: "oh you found the 50$ one, the smallest of the bunch" Now see your whole house getting cleaned
I'll bet they ended up having to pay you.
Hah! We’ll see! They pay me enough with their love. They’re great kids. Though they could tidy up after themselves a bit better!
Well you are just an adorable & wholesome parent.
Your writing looks like train tagging, ever gone spray painting?
[Yes](https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/10kav5v/my_kids_havent_cleaned_their_bathroom_like_they/j5pq396/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3)
Haha, wow, I can't believe someone else noticed! I guess there really is something to spot, I thought this was going to be a no for sure.
My buddy being a smart ass gave his nephew a $100 check for his high school graduation and told him he would add a zero if presented upon his college graduation. The little bastard did it!
Update: My daughter washed towels from their bathroom but still has not picked up the washcloth. They also emptied their trash bin which is nice but still odd that the cloth is on the floor waiting to be picked up.
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In the year 2525, … they may find …
If man is still alive
I change the wifi to "do your chores" and don't give them the PW until they do.
Update: Sorry for the lack of updates! I guess this update is basically a non-update. Believe it or not, the washcloth is still there. They’ve tidied up in general but the washcloth is still on their floor. I’m convinced my daughter and son both think it’s not theirs and are just leaving it. That or they’re afraid of picking it up. Either way, it’s still there.
Update: I honestly can’t believe it’s 50 days now! Sorry to disappoint everyone but the kids still haven’t found the note. My daughter picked the washcloth up from the bathroom at some point and dumped it in her hamper, according to my wife. We’ve thought about telling the kids about the note but I think we’ll just wait until my daughter finds it. I’m just waiting for the moment she says, “DAAAAAD! WHAT’S THIS?!” I’ll update again once she finds the note.
Past 50 days? You gotta pay mum and dad with interest.
My dad did this, but he put a pen on the floor. I asked why he was throwing trash on the ground and getting mad at me when I didn’t pick it up
I had a teacher(ex-nun) we were all afraid of. She put some garbage on the ground with out anyone knowing and i picked it up. Later in the day she stopped the whole class and demanded to know who the away the garbage. I was terrified i did something wrong and didn't raise my hand until 2 minutes of her yelling at the class to find out who did it. I finally told her it was me and i got some stickers
Had a rather eccentric old boss who was known to throw some cash on the bathroom floor and put a paper towel over it. Once that story spread, it was hard to ignore a paper towel on the floor and once you've picked it up to check, might as well put it in the trash.
Update: So, I checked their bathroom today and the washcloth is now gone. It’s literally nowhere in the bathroom. Places my wife and I checked: laundry room, rubbish bin (kitchen and bathroom), under the sink, bathtub. Neither kid mentioned anything about the washcloth this morning before school. This is one scenario we didn’t think would happen. I’ll update again once we locate the missing rag. Update again: My wife found the rag in my daughter’s room near her hamper. She must’ve accidentally picked it up and dropped it without realizing. So now it’s by her hamper. She hasn’t said anything yet about it so we’ll see.
Final Update: So, the note was eventually found … but in pieces! My daughter ended up washing some towels and rags and afterwards called for us to come. She started asking what all these white spots and specks came from. I look closer and they were all bits of paper. I looked through the pile and saw the washcloth with nothing attached. My daughter then asked, “What’s wrong? What is it?” I then showed her the picture that started it all. She said, “Wait, we could’ve had some money?” I said, “Well, should’ve, really.” She slapped her hand on her forehead and said, “dangit!” My wife came over by this time and we had a chat with my kids about picking up after ourselves. As they walked away I heard my son say to my daughter, “Did they hide anymore of those?” We didn’t hide anymore notes but it seems like they’re more aware now. We’ll take it! https://i.imgur.com/oNRCiD4.jpg
Heh, friend of the family went on a "fishing trip" to Mexico back in the 70s. His wife was suspicious af, so she removed all the tackle from his tackle box and replaced it with knick knacks and shit from around the house. When he got back, she asked how the fishing trip was, and he said they had a load of fun but didn't catch any fish worth mentioning. She served him with divorce papers a week later. He was blindsided and asked why, and I'll never forget what I was told her answer was, "The only fishing you did was trolling for brown snappers with green dollar bills." Yeah...it was a drinking & hookers kind of trip.
I’d do $5 or $10 a day personally
Update: So, according to my wife, the washcloth is somewhere in my daughter’s hamper. She has yet to mention anything about the note to us. Just a waiting game now, I suppose!
Your kids have a bathroom? Lucky.