The Pick-Up Fairy

Anastasia is a very well behaved little girl who generally follows the rules. As you might expect, as she's gotten older, and more independent, our expectations of what she can do herself have increased. Around her fourth birthday, we began to expect that she would straighten her room regularly. This involves putting the stuffed animals in their corner, the kitchen stuff in its corner and generally shoving the rest of the toys in the vicinity of the toybox. We're not talking major cleaning here, just making it possible to walk in her room.

Initially this was a challenge. Orlando and I ended up doing most of it ourselves, which Anastasia was happy to take advantage of. Then I remembered reading a story in Parents Magazine describing the Pick-Up Fairy, and how she could change the nature of this process. Our Pick-Up Fairy can be nice, leaving a dollar for a particularly good job of cleaning up, or taking toys left behind for a whole week. (That hasn't actually happened yet.)

We introduced her pretty casually as a less nice contrast to the Tooth Fairy who's super nice and only gives presents. Anastasia quickly made the logical leap that not all fairies are really nice, and that some might even be a little mean. She was immediately eager to do the work necessary to ensure that the Pick-Up Fairy didn't take her toys.

Now, our little girl very readily tidies her room before bedtime, well aware that if she doesn't some of her favorite toys, the ones she plays with every day, will go away for a week (not that she has a particularly strong grasp of how long a week is.) It now just requires a gentle reminder to get the ball rolling, and the room is picked up in no time.

The Pick-Up Fairy is even interested in bath toys, so Anastasia does a pretty good job of putting her toys back into the baskets where they belong.

I don't know how long the magical wonder of the Pick-Up Fairy will last, she's growing up and gaining interest in so many different things each day. But for now, her things find their way back home at the end of each day, and I consider that a victory.