After reading an article in LDS Living about a mom getting tired of picking up her kids' toys after they went to bed, she introduced the "Gobbler Bag," on the advice of a friend. The gist being that if the kids don't pick up their toys before going to bed, while they are sleeping, a bag with a painted face, AKA the Gobbler, will come and eat their toys. The toys will be gobbled for one week, at which point they will be returned. Repeat offenses with the same toys means the toys will be given to children who don't have any toys.
Toys litter our home like you wouldn't believe and I'm not very good at enforcing the pick up, so I decided to give this Gobbler bag idea a try. I never even got to the point of creating a bag with a face or anything... I described what the Gobbler does, sort of pointed to a large black trash bag to give them a general idea of what it looks like, and they just stared at me wide-eyed and in disbelief at the horror I was describing.
Avery resisted at first, she told me she wanted a new Gobbler, a "nice Gobbler," and Rylee said that she wanted little children who had no toys to have hers. But after a few minutes of warnings before bedtime the idea started to sink in and Rylee became terrified to the core. I've never seen her scramble to pick up her toys so fast, and her panic transferred to Avery as well.
I guess to kids who already believe that a Santa Claus and Easter Bunny come in the night a "Gobbler" coming isn't much of a stretch either--although it sounds a bit more terrifying. We've been going three nights now and it's been so much easier than I thought. Each morning they ask if he came. I think Rylee was worried about him coming in her room. But it's become habit now to pick up the toys before bed, which is fabulous. I hope it doesn't wear off any time soon. Who knew that the threat of toys being eaten could be such a motivator? I just hope the whole "Gobbler coming in the night to eat your toys" thing doesn't scar them for life.
7 comments:
Hey - whatever works. I might have to try that with my kids one of these days... Or better yet my husband. Do you think he would panic if I told him the gobbler was going to eat all his dirty clothes??
Katie--
I couldn't stop laughing at your post. My mom had a similar variation to the gobbler bag when we were little. I always imagined a little man-like Rumplestiltskein--sleeping on the top shelf of the guest room closet by day and by night he would sneak out and steal all of our toys that we'd left out. For years, I was afraid to ever look in the closet, but hey--we sure kept those toys picked up!
ok so i tried this once- but not with the gobbler, just me finally grabbing a trash bag and throwing all the toys in and saying i was throwing them all away. but since i have never been able to throw ANYTHING away i just stashed it in the garage. a few weeks later emma said "mom, can we have those back? i have been looking at them for weeks now". she's on to me.
My mom did something like this and had a decorated bag and everything. We could do chores to earn our toys back. It's a great idea. We need to get in the habit of the nightly pick up, too. Bed time is Jake's duty, and he doesn't really care if the toys are left out. Maybe we'll have to try the gobbler too!
I so need to do something about our toys! I can pretty much contain it in their rooms, but I can't get them to put anything back. I'll have to give this a try!
My mom called it the "gunny bag" and we even had a song. I will sing it for you . . .
Here comes gunny bag,
Yum, yum, yummy,
Eats up all the toys,
Puts them in his tummy.
So keeps your things
Nice and clean,
So gunny won't find
A think to eat.
Here comes gunny bag . . .
You make me laugh.
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