A No-Fail Way To Get Kids To Turn Off Lights
There is a NO-FAIL way to get your kids (or anyone else in your house) to douse the lights when they leave a room.
WASTE NOT Desperate times call for desperate measures, and the times were desperate around my house. After what seemed like eons of continual nagging by me and my husband, our children, lovely individuals all, continued to leave the lights on when they exited their rooms, or any of the other spaces in our home they frequented with regularity.
“Turn off the light when you leave a room” is one of our basic house rules, along with “Do not take hour-long showers” and “Avoid drinks in disposable containers” if at all possible. But where wasting water and steering clear of junk plastic seemed to click with my tribe, remembering to douse the lights remained an issue.
The Genesis Of A Bright Idea
The moment a light is turned off, it stops using energy. BC Hydro suggests turning off lights whenever a room is unoccupied, even if it’s only for a few minutes. The powers at Hydro understand that breaking bad habits can be hard, so they offer suggestions on their website like putting little reminders such as Post-it notes next to light switches to trigger the appropriate action. Riiiight. Been there; done that; didn’t find it effective.
What I did find effective is something that might turn off a few readers because it takes the responsibility for the crime out of the hands of the perpetrators. The solution came to me one morning when I was turning off the lights in their bedrooms for the zillionth time and thought what if they didn’t need to remember to do it; what if the lights turned off automatically?
How I Got Light Minded
So here’s what I did. I purchased 30- and 60-minute countdown timers (Decora Plus electronic timer switches by Leviton are $36 to $39 each at the Home Depot) and had an electrician remove the old on-off models and replace them with timer versions in my children’s bedrooms and in the bathroom they share.
There were a few complaints at first, and some of their friends thought it was pretty funny, but once everyone got with the program, there was no more wasting energy—and I didn’t have to nag ever again, about that anyway. (Oh yes, and my worry that if I adopted this system my kids would never break their bad habit has not proved to be true.) —Carolann Rule
You can see Leviton electronic timer switches at www.leviton.com
I think this is so cruel to your kids!
Audrey
This is one awesome post.Really looking forward to read more. Will read on…
@Audrey…how is this cruel? You’re either a troll or an idiot. I’m dealing with this same problem with my kids (whom one is 16) and am just fed up with their total lack of respect for my requests to turn off the lights. Regardless of how many different ways I explain it to them, it just doesn’t get done. Searching for a solution is how I came across this post.
Hi Stacey,
I can tell you this solution has worked beautifully for the writer of this post. It is in no way cruel, and her kids do not view it that way. They actually thought it was funny at first, and now they consider it normal. One daughter, who has now moved out, is more diligent than most about turning off lights. She says she learned to think about it more because her mother installed the automatic switches. —eds
Cruel? Audrey, maybe you should chew your kids food before you give it too them too, isn’t it cruel that they have to chew their own food?
@carolannrule:
She’s more diligent dice she’s moved out because she now pays her own bills!
That’s what causes someone to be more diligent.
Problem is, my son is 11. I still have at least 7 yrs to go!
I just took the lightbulb out of the hallway. I told him to turn it off (again) and less than 5 minutes later it’s left on again. I was thinking of a motion sensor instead of a timer. Esp for in the hallway. I have one in the bathroom but it also has a manual switch and it gets left on anyway. The hallway one is one u screw into the socket.
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