Since yesterday was rainy and cold, we spent most of the day inside. The kids spent most of the day in the basement playing with their toys. This morning I told them that they needed to clean the basement before they could watch any television shows. Gillian nodded and started to pick up some toys. John asked “How many?” I understand that, sometimes we tell them to only pick up a certain number of toys. But not today. Today they needed to clean up all the toys. John understood and started to clean up. Meanwhile, Gillian was playing. I called her over to me and told her that she needed to clean and not play. She said “I don’t wanna!” I told her that I didn’t make the mess and that she needed to clean it up. She said “no!” I told her that she had two options, clean the basement or go to timeout. She started to clean. But the second I turned away she would stop and play or sing a song or read a book. It took them about 45 minutes to clean the basement. It will probably be a mess again by tomorrow.