Years ago, Jan and I had several teen boys living in our home. Based on the state of their bathroom, I could tell they needed to learn an important life lesson. So I said, “From now on, you need to clean your own toilet and bathroom. Otherwise, you’ll lose it!”

Hi, I’m Mark Gregston … with Parenting Today’s Teens.

Unfortunately, the mess got even worse. So one day I just took the entire toilet out! Pretty soon, the smell was too much … even for them. So they came to me and pleaded, “What can we do to get our toilet back?”

In return for a new toilet, the boys cleaned all the bathrooms in the house for a few months. It taught them how to take care of things. But more importantly, they learned that when you break a rule, you pay the consequence.