Have you ever struggled to get your kids to help you clean the house? Of course you have. This is one of the most common struggles parents have with their kids, especially teens who could care less if there’s crumbs on the floor or a ring around the toilet.

Doing chores is sooo boring for a kid. Help wipe down the counters when there’s Instagram to scroll? Sweep the floors when they haven’t even looked at their Snapchats yet? I mean, are you kidding, Ma?

If this scenario sounds familiar, you’ve probably tried all kinds of things to get your kids to help you clean. Chore charts? Games? Bribery? These ideas might work once in a while, but more than likely the kids won’t last long. The key is getting down to the root core of the problem.

…Which is exactly what one mom did. You might be able to learn a thing or two from her about how to really get your kids to help out around the house.

Just to preface this before you think this mom was just trying to get out of cleaning herself. Oh, no. This mom has been there, done that, and was really aggravated and tired of her kids leaving all kinds of gross things in their rooms (we’re talking pizza boxes shoved underneath the bed and glasses of gone-bad milk on their night tables).

In the real world, there isn’t always going to be a maid (or “magic cleaning fairy,” as this mom put it) to do all the tidying for you. And the mom was on a mission to teach her kids a lesson (and get a clean house out of it).

Here’s the sign she taped up for her kids to read one day while she was out:

The note reads: “Today’s WiFi password can be unlocked by texting a photo of a clean kitchen to mom. Sent photograph MUST contain one box of crackers on the counter by the stove (to prevent re-using any previous photos). “Thank you for playing. May the odds be in your favor. Love, Mom”

There are lots of things we love about this brilliant note. First, she got down to the real reason her kids had no interest in cleaning: they’re way more interested in other things happening on the interwebs. But what happens when you take away their ability to go online?

Secondly, she totally knew her kids would try to cheat by pulling up an old photo of a clean house. But she threw them a curveball by making one of the rules very specific—placing a cracker box at a very specific spot in the kitchen.

She might not have come home to very cheerful teens, but hey, the house was clean right? In a world of ever-flowing technology, her kids really had no choice but to just suck it up and do their chores.

What do you think of this mom’s hack to get her children to do their chores? Would you ever try something like this with your own kids?