Ashlyn's Latest Obsession

If I haven't seen Ashlyn for awhile and it is really quiet I can usually find her in her room playing beads. These beads have been the best $8 investment I have ever made. She strings the beads on to pipe cleaner and makes bracelets for the whole family and anyone who comes to visit. She has figured out how to make patterns, and loves to organize all the different shapes and colors. The only downfall to these beads is they make a mess if she dumps them out. I think she has finally learned not to do that though. The other day she had them all over her floor and I told her she couldn't come out of her room until she had cleaned them up. After two hours and her not picking up a single bead I was getting pretty impatient. I tried giving her a flashlight to help her find them and make it more fun; that worked for about a minute. I was talking to my sister on the phone and complaining to her that Ashlyn wouldn't complete this simple task. And she started telling me that she had told her kids that morning she was going to vacuum up their toys if they didn't pick them up. Just then a light went on and I got off the phone to get the vacuum out. My oldest sister Kambria used to threaten Tiffany and me when we were little that she would vacuum up our stuff, and I hated it! Here I was doing the same thing. At first Ashlyn didn't think I would really vacuum up her beads (she is so stubborn). She sat there and watched as I came in her room, and then to her horror I started vacuuming them up. She started screaming and frantically picking them up as fast as she could. I only vacuumed up a few and then I turned off the vacuum and told her she could have 10 minutes to clean them up. I left the vacuum in her room to keep her motivated. She didn't like that very much. She came out crying saying, "mom I just don't want to see that vacuum in my room!" Needless to say she finally cleaned up her beads, and they haven't been on her floor since! It would have been so much easier just to pick them up myself, but I hope this some how teaches her responsibility and discipline.