Life as an RPG

Clive Thompson ruminated on dieting as a Roll Playing Game, and wished more parts of everyday life could be as much fun. As a Mom Who Games, I often try to make the mundane more fun buy turning it into a game. Not exactly an RPG, but we try to make things go by faster by seeing who can finish faster, who can find the most 'red' stuff to put on one shelf in their rooms, etc.

During the summer, the kids have a very lax schedule. We only have a couple of karate classes and the occasional day trip planned, but otherwise, they're free to choose what to do with their day at home. My husband works from home during the summer months, but he's actually working, and doesn't have time to prod them to get dressed etc. To keep things semi-organized, I leave them a To-Do list when I head into the office for my 1/2 day of droning. When my son complained that it wasn't much fun to do "to-do's", I started calling it a quest list, and he perked up.

They have the normal grinding quests like make your bed, and clean one section of your room, for which they get 1 point each. There are extra credit quests like Swiffer the kitchen floor, or put all the dirty clothes into the basket. If they do 3 extra credit quests in one week, they'll accumulate enough points to turn in for something fun on Friday. Some weeks it's a video game rental (shhh - I get free coupons from Blockbuster on-line once a month, so this is a cheep prize!) or a trip to McD's. They can even save up their points and redeem them for a larger prize, like a new Wii game or a Webkinz, which pays me back in quiet time when they're busy playing with their new prize. Plus I've got the bonus of having a semi-clean floor, and not having to gather the laundry from indiviual rooms myself. I usually do one "you choose" extra credit during the week, and it's interesting to see what the kids will choose to do as an extra help around the house. My son, the laziest boy on the planet, often will choose something like using the cleaning wipes to shine the bathroom sinks (a 30 second job - if you're slow). My daughter chose to organize the snack and drinks baskets, and even created labels for the front them. A Martha Stewart clone in the making? eek.

Still not very RPG. But that's why we play World of Warcraft - to get our fix of RPG!
Sorry, Clive.