Justice or Mercy?

In my quest for creative parenting solutions, I'm often struck with the realization that my kids aren't stupid.

The older two were throwing dirt at each other so they had to clean up and come in for time out. I decided that rather than letting them just sit there while I cleaned that they could have jobs instead. Tag said he didn't want jobs, he just wanted to be in time out. Haha. Like I'm going to let the little convict sit there and watch me clean. So, I told him that he could either help Princess and me clean or he could be in time out for twice as long as it took us to clean (it took more words and demonstrations to show him what this meant, but he got the idea). He decided to stay in time out. So, I set the timer and Princess and I set to work. Things were about half way done when he decided he wanted to help after all.

Ok, so he wants to help after the worst of it is over? Is that like picking the winning team? He doesn't like sitting in one place for very long so I knew the time out wasn't a treat, but he basically decided to show up at the party after all the set up was done.

Justice says that I should have let him rot in prison. Mercy says that I should let him out, give him a portion of work, and then give him time off for good behavior.

I got sneaky. I said ok, then called him into the kitchen which he couldn't see and gave him jobs in there. He ended up doing his share, but what if I didn't have a heap of recycling that needed to get sorted? Or toys here and there that needed to be gathered and put away? We tend to get a pretty messy house over the weekend and we had to run a ton of errands this morning. So now I have a mostly clean house and a heap of laundry that needs to be folded and put away.