The Gobble Bag
by Amy Ambridge

At night, after my children go to bed, I look around the house and become discouraged at what I see. There are toys in the family room, jackets and stuffed animals strewn all over the stairs, and dirty dishes mingled with crayons on the counter. At least, that’s the way it used to be.

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In an afternoon, the kids seem to undo a whole morning’s worth of work. This causes no small amount of stress, discouragement, and frustration as I try to get my girls to clean up after themselves.

I was sharing with a friend how exhausted I get picking up all the clutter and little messes left by my children. She introduced me to the idea of a gobble bag. My friend told me that her mother has a bag with a face painted on it and the face has very large teeth. It is called the “gobble bag” and at night, when the children go to bed, it comes out and eats up all the children’s toys and clutter that is left around the house. I quickly adopted the idea and have saved my back and sanity in the process. My workload has dropped by almost half and so has my frustration level.

When I first introduced the idea of the gobble bag to my children, I explained that it would be the their, not my, responsibility to clean up the toys. Before bedtime, I would tell my girls, “Feel free to pick up any toys you want to keep.” I would remind them at first, but only for a few days. I let the gobble bag do the reminding and the teaching. At night, the gobble bag “eats” up any remaining toys, books, papers, and items left by my children. At first there are a lot of toys to pick up and put into the bag, but each day the clutter and toys gets to be less and less until it is almost non-existent.

My three-year-old daughter learned the hard way when her favorite stuffed dog, Gooey, was gobbled up. She cried and was upset, but the blame was placed squarely on her because she forgot to take him to her room. I sympathized with her by saying, “That is so sad that you forgot to put away your doggie and the gobble bag gobbled him up. Don’t worry; you will get him back in a week and I am sure you will take better care of him in the future.”

The inanimate nature of the gobble bag seems to shift the responsibility away from the parents and onto the child. My daughter had to wait until the following Monday night when all the toys are presented at our family night to get Gooey back. After our family night, the children then have the option of putting away all their toys. If they forget, they go away for another week. They have only forgotten once.

They know that if they continue to leave out the same toys it tells me that they are not interested in caring for those toys. Then we decide to give those toys to someone who will care for them.

My daughter was so happy to see Gooey after a week’s absence that she never left him out again.

Now, each night before bedtime, I find joy as I watch my children (instead of me) frantically picking up all the toys, dolls, art supplies, and clutter that they want to keep. They are learning personal responsibility and I have learned a lesson in creative parenting.

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