A mum's no-nonsense solution to the mess left behind by her teenagers has attracted a huge response from parents.
Alice Velásquez created a post on Facebook, showing a photo of her daughters' clothes and beauty products bundled up in rubbish bags.
"What do you do when you are DONE telling your teenage daughters to stop letting their room look like homeless people live there?" she wrote.
"You put everything (YES EVERYTHING) into plastic bags and you sell it back to them for $25 a bag (and they have to earn the money doing chores)."
"The best part?" her post continues, "The bags were collected as they were found in the room - random! So their $25 could buy a bag of dirty clothes, it could buy a bag of trash or it could buy their soccer gear. #MayTheOddsBeEverInYourFavor."
The post has since gone viral, drawing supporters, as well comments from those who thought she had gone too far with her novel approach to cleaning.
In a further post she addressed all the negativity, saying she stood by her parenting style.
"None of you nasty people know me or my children or a single thing about our situation. I guess the downside of posting my parenting choices and having it go 'viral' is all the haters... I do not know when I last received such hateful messages!!"
She went on to explain the reason for her actions, and explained how she had asked her daughter repeatedly to clean up her messy room.
When her requests fell on deaf ears, she wanted her teenagers to know she was serious. "If her teacher or boss asks her to complete a task and she refuses, there will be consequences," she wrote. "That is life, and that is how we all contribute to society."
Despite the haters, she has also received a wave of support, with some parents saying they wished they had thought of that with their teens. "Is it wrong of me to laugh this hard at your solution??? Genius!!" said one commenter.
With an eager audience wanting to know whether the daughter had earned any of the bags back, Velásquez posted an update.
"YES! She has, and her super siblings all volunteered for extra chores to help her earn faster too. SO not only was this a lesson for my oldest daughter, but a great family building exercise too."
Although she was surprised to see her post go viral, Velásquez said most parents struggle to find ways to get through to their teenagers.
"There are a lot of parents out there just like me who do not think that corporal punishment is the correct solution - there is a difference between fear and respect; so we look for solutions that do not provoke a fight or breed animosity."
- nzherald.co.nz