I was having a great day.  The house was only 50% cluttered, my kids – two of them home today – were happily playing in increments of three minutes before a disagreement erupted and I was starting to feel like I was catching up on work.  Plus we have a super fun and exciting Christmas party tonight that I am busting at the seams to tell my kids about!  But I can’t….  Santa will be there!  Shhhhhh…..

I watched the UPS man come and go, questioned why the FedEx man did not stop for the first time in weeks and waved at my mail lady as she filled me mailbox with loving cards and well wishes for the holiday.

At least I thought that was all that would be in there!  Unfortunately the bill I dread mostly every month was hidden in the green and red envelopes.  The electric bill.

And it is a legitimate fear.  In this 30 year old home, most of the home lighting is old and needs replacing and even if it is new, the house is wired so badly that the look of the new fixture is quickly sullied by the unreliability of the switch.  In addition, I have single pane windows where you can literally feel the air coming in if you stand too close.

Add to that 3 kids who feel that they must light their way everywhere by flipping on every switch – they can reach them now, so it’s great fun – but never turn them off.  I feel like I am constantly walking around this house turning off every light having flashbacks to my mother yelling, “Why is every light in the house on?”.

Wow, I really did turn into my mother….

That is a whole other post.

Anyway, I think it is high time I teach my kids to turn off the light, close the door to the outside and the cold garage and to layer so I don’t have to have the heat up past 72°.  Because my electric bill was $300 bucks.  And I am so not in the mood to choose between lights and food!

How do you teach your kids to stop using so much electricity and does the effort even work?

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