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Ah, the simple kitchen egg timer. We use it when cooking, when dyeing our hair, and even for such things as exercising and tanning. But I have discovered that the egg timer is a Godsend for getting young children to do what you want them to do, for creating order in an otherwise chaotic household.

I'm not talking about time-outs -- that's beginner stuff. No, I'm talking about using the egg timer as a motivational tool when your child is dawdling, doesn't want to do a chore, or is simply taking way too long to get dressed.

In the past few months, bedtime for our 4-year-old had become the most difficult and frustrating time in our house. A) He never wants to go to bed; B) He's usually involved in an activity that's way more interesting than putting on pajamas and brushing his teeth; and C) We were too impatient to deal with his defiant behavior at bedtime. Hayden would often have us chasing him around the house, waving his pajamas at him as he streaked through the living room, laughing at our inability to control him.

Those days are over. Enter the egg timer. Sometime between 7 and 7:30 each night, I tell Hayden that it's time to get ready for bed, and I set the timer for 10-12 minutes. If he's not in his pajamas with his teeth brushed by the time the buzzer rings, we don't read bedtime stories. It has worked like a charm. I've never seen him move so quickly, and when he's ready for bed and there's still time left on the timer, he is thrilled to get a few extra minutes to play.

With that success under our belts, I'm now thinking of other ways we can use the egg timer. During baths, when getting ready to go somewhere, when he's playing on the computer... I can envision running our entire daily routines by the tick-tock of the egg timer. "Sorry, sweetheart. The buzzer hasn't rung yet. Mommy gets to sleep a little longer." "Oh, look, the buzzer rang. That means the piggy-back ride game is over."

I think I could even bring the egg timer to work and use it to my advantage. If I'm stuck on the phone in an endless discussion about how to credit a photo: "Oh, dear, time's up." Click. Or when I need my boss's help, but she's busy with someone else: Rrrrringggggg. "Time's up, people. You must now focus your attention on me."

Yes, I do believe the inventer of the egg timer -- whoever that was -- deserves a medal or some type of honorary statue, because in motherhood, you'll take every little bit of help you can get.