Bucket of Productivity

"Simon...I think you know why we're here having this little chat. You don't want to be here-"

   Simon made a move to object.

    "-No, no its fine. You have things you'd rather be doing with your time and so do I. Simon, Simon, Simon...just what are we going to do with you? These past few months your productivity was, how shall we say this? To be blunt it was not good Simon. It makes me sad, because you see, I like to think of our little operation here as a tightly run ship. When one of us isn't pulling their weight that ship isn't quite as tightly run anymore, is it?"

                  Simon shook his head.

  "Good. We both want this 'ship' of ours to run smoothly. Now how 'bout we make ourselves a deal?"

"Mom, how about you lay off Simon a little?", said Simon's older sister Liz from the kitchen where she was cooking, "I get that he's been a bit irresponsible lately, but the mobster schtick isn't doing anyone any good. He's ten years old, lighten up."

  Simon, who had been utterly downcast and withdrawn like a sulky cat left out in the rain overnight, sparked up just a little at his sister's words of defense.

 Their mother cleared her throat sheepishly, "I'm sorry Simon, sometimes it just seems hard to get through to you. Maybe your father and I watched the Sopranos and The Godfather series too many times when the two of you were little instead of reading parenting books. Where was I? Oh right, well we still need to do something to try to get you back on track. I've got an idea for a rewards system we can try. We'll take this bucket here." She motioned to her left.

   "It's a sand-pail, Mom.", Simon ventured.

"Ah, so it is! Okay we'll take this sand-pail then and every time you do something good we'll put a quarter in the pail. If you come to dinner the first time I call or brush your teeth before bed, that's a quarter."

   "Only a quarter for everything? What about if I do something really good?"

His mother smiled, "Now you're thinking Simon. If you do something outstanding, like getting an A on a project or test then we'll add a dollar to the pail. But if you slip up, that will be a deduction of 50¢ from the pail. How's this sound?"

   "Sounds good Mom!"

"Okay then, we'll put the pail on the side table here. Now why don't you go see if your sister will be nice enough to make you a sandwich."