Parents Dean and Kelsey Shackley have a brilliant way of getting their kids to clean the house, and it’s gone viral.
Like the cleaning version of Supermarket Sweep, their four children race around scrubbing surfaces, and the one with the dirtiest wipe wins the big prize: they get to choose what the family does that weekend.
“Every Saturday morning, we try to get our house in order. We usually do something fun on Friday nights as a family, and then Saturday, it’s kind of pickup time before we go out and do something fun,” Mr. Shackley told The Epoch Times. “The kids really thought it was funny; they loved the challenge, and it turned into a fun competition.”
The Shackleys later posted a video of their genius method on social media, and their fun parenting hack has scored over two million views.
They married 12 years ago, after meeting at Pittsburg State University in Kansas. Originally from the Kansas City area, the family moved to Southwest Florida three years ago.
Mrs. Shackley worked as a pediatric nurse for several years, and her husband worked in construction before becoming a real estate agent. The couple are proud parents to a 9-year-old daughter, 6-year-old identical twin daughters, and a 1-year-old son.
Mr. Shackley credits his wife with coming up with inventive tricks to encourage their kids to do chores.
“As you can imagine, having four kids, you’ve got to get pretty creative when it comes to keeping your household in order and keeping kids in line,“ Mr. Shackley said. ”So, Kelsey comes up with a lot of these little games and reward systems, not only to keep the children entertained but to raise strong, confident, hard-working kids that will grow up to be respectable adults one day.”
Believing that kids operate better when there’s a reward involved, the couple live by a star system, Mrs. Shackley says, plus a timer.
“It’s like, ‘Timer set, go! Clean as much as you can!’” she said. “We do that with just about anything: picking up, folding the blankets, put the pillows back on the couch, put the toys away. Even with laundry: get your laundry put away. If you beat the time, you get a gold star.”
If any of the children have achieved five stars by the end of the week, they get taken to an inexpensive store to pick out a toy. “It doesn’t have to be something extravagant ... and they think it’s awesome,” their father said.
But there’s a caveat: if they don’t get five stickers, they don’t get to pick anything.
“We stick to that pretty hard. Because, you know, we don’t want to start an entitlement system.” Mr. Shackley said.
The key to making it work, the Shackleys say, is having fun with it; because then, they’ll want to do it over and over.
Mrs. Shackley said: “Don’t overcomplicate it. Just look at what needs to be done in the day already, and just get your kids involved and make it fun, as much fun as you can. Whether it’s putting on fun music or setting the timer or getting a gold star, something that just brings, like, fun to it. I just find that my kids then don’t dread it and they actually want to get involved.”
That, and approaching it with grace is the other key. After all, the result might not be super pretty, or look like you hired a maid.
“Be okay with what it looks like—tell them it looks great,“ Mr. Shackley said. ”Boost their confidence; give them praise, because to them, it’s a big deal. And also, keep it within reason. ... Keep it simple. In the past, we’ve done an afternoon date with Mom and Dad as a reward. We’ll go to Dunkin' Donuts or a coffee shop and get them a cake and a fun little drink.”
The day they filmed the cleaning clip, Ruby—their eldest daughter—won. Her reward? Spending the day at the beach, playing in the sand. Sharing these insights into real, often messy, family life is a way for the Shackleys to create some positivity and humor.
“A lot of people don’t like social media because it can be very negative,” Mr. Shackley says. “I think if people can come and get some ideas off us and even a laugh or two, then we’ve kind of improved their day.”
