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Friends, if you have more than one child - even if they’re twins - you intimately understand concepts like fairness, equality, greed, revenge, theft, falsehood, sloth, merit, and many others. #Parenting #Dadlife #Momlife
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![Friends, if you have more than one child - even if they’re twins - you intimately understand concepts like fairness, equality, greed, revenge, theft, falsehood, sloth, merit, and many others. #Parenting #Dadlife #Momlife [1/11]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EewjQBKUEAIuoAw.jpg "Friends, if you have more than one child - even if they’re twins - you intimately understand concepts like fairness, equality, greed, revenge, theft, falsehood, sloth, merit, and many others. #Parenting #Dadlife #Momlife [1/11]")
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In my case, I have 10. If you’re doing the math and you’re confused, that’s 8 children walking on two legs, one in-utero, and one we never got to meet.
Moving on…
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Moving on…
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Last month, we took a stay-cation at a local resort. Prior to leaving, and as we generally do before any trip, we clean the house. Or rather, we *want* the house to be clean, but it usually never gets done.
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Having experienced this each of the 14 years that we’ve had our own home, I decided to spice things up a bit to get the kids to help more. Threats of violence? Free candy?…
No.
Cash money.
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No.
Cash money.
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I told the kids that each room in the house, or group of two smaller rooms, was worth $20 each. They were allowed to either work independently or form any combination of alliances they wished.
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The monetary prize for cleaning each sector did not increase or decrease based upon the number of people who completed the task. There was no earnings cap on how many sectors one individual or alliance were allowed to complete for $.
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Here were the results. (Age and gender intentionally omitted):
-Three children didn’t get out of bed until lunchtime, thus missing the entire value proposition.
-Two children formed an alliance and cleaned 2.5 sectors, earning $50 to split between the two of them.
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-Three children didn’t get out of bed until lunchtime, thus missing the entire value proposition.
-Two children formed an alliance and cleaned 2.5 sectors, earning $50 to split between the two of them.
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-Two children did almost nothing and loudly complained for several hours that the system was rigged.
-One child was too young to be part of the initiative apart from moral support.
-My wife and I helped in different areas at different times throughout.
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-One child was too young to be part of the initiative apart from moral support.
-My wife and I helped in different areas at different times throughout.
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I didn't love any one of my children any more or less than another at any point. I did not expect anything of them that was outside of their physical or mental capabilities.
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I didn’t punish them in any way for not completing their tasks. I simply set up an environment of equal opportunity where they could earn a little something extra to enjoy on vacation.
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Are you surprised by the results? I was. Mostly because I didn’t think we’d get the house cleaned, which we did! But also, because I hadn’t intended on creating a sociological experiment that so closely mirrors our own society.
Happy Thursday, everyone!
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Happy Thursday, everyone!
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