Pick Up Your Socks - Elizabeth Crary

This book is subtitled “…and other skills growing children need! A Practical Guide to Raising Responsible Children.” In it, Ms. Crary tackles such topics as responsibility versus obedience, basic responsibility skills (memory, motivation), chores, school responsibility, and independent living skills.


I read this book with mixed thoughts/feelings. A lot of it seemed to go too far towards negotiating and rewarding your children for every little thing they do. However, I was able to pull out a few nuggets. I think when introducing a new skill or chore, a reward chart of some kind (where they color a square for each success and once X spaces are filled, they receive a reward). Also, I’m going to talk to the husband person about possible setting up a contract for A. and her homework. That continues to be a struggle…and has been off and on since second grade when her mom told her she didn’t really care about her schoolwork. I’m not sure that a contract will work to motivate her (it didn’t help with her special Challenge program she was removed from for not challenging). But we are quickly running out of ideas, and we haven’t tried this one yet.