Applying Thumb Up Choices

I still put Caleb down for rest time on most afternoons. Not because he'll fall asleep, but mostly because I love having an hour or so to get some things done. During this time, Caleb is supposed to be sitting on his bed looking at books and not playing with his toys....(yeah, right). One of our rules after rest time is that Caleb has to clean up his room before he can come downstairs for his snack and cartoon time (it's a ritual) :) Yesterday afternoon, I let him know that he could be done with his rest time and that he needed to start cleaning up his room.

He looked at me and said, "Mom, when you help me clean up my room that's a thumbs up choice and when you don't help me that's a thumbs down choice." I thought to myself (Way, to apply those thinking skills, bud...but, I don't think so.)

What I said to him was, "I'm sorry, but you made the mess. So you can clean up the mess." (A direct quote from one of his Berstein Bears books.)