It's been a long winter...and it's not even half over. We have been spending a lot of time in the house. And it shows. So as I was surveying the disheveled landscape, I thought to myself "I need to make these kids do a little more to help out around here."
Now, my question is...Do you have your children do chores? If so, what? At what age? Weekly or daily chores? Do you reward them with stickers or money or nothing? And how is is working for you??
Do you have them rub your feet and feed you grapes? Haha. That does sound nice though, doesn't it? Maybe chocolate instead of grapes...Ok, back to reality!
The bottom line is that I think my kids need to work a little harder and I need to work a little smarter! I would love your feed back!
6 comments:
My kids totally do chores and don't get allowances or payment for them. One theme in our house is "everybody helps." They have chore charts they have to check off every day.
My almost 6-year-old daughter brings the laundry to the laundry room and starts a load every morning, sets the table and clears it for breakfast, makes lunch (sammys), and cooks one meal (with my supervision) a week. She also has to feed and water the dog every day.
My 2 1/2 year old has to take out the garbage (which he LOVES), put the wet clothes in the dryer or help me hang them on the line, sort dry clothes into everybody's baskets, clear the table at lunch & load the dishwasher, and set the table for dinner.
We do floors on Mondays and everybody likes having a turn to sweep and vacuum with varying degrees of success. We also do a quick clean-up every night before we go upstairs and EVERYBODY must participate in order to have some bath play time. Before the bath, we work together to put away our clean clothes, get out pj's and clothes for the next day.
My kids come grocery shopping with me and have their own lists that they must get and bagging the groceries. They work in the workshop with daddy fixing things that get broken. They also love "cleaning the windows." My windows are not normally very clean but they LOVE LOVE LOVE wiping them down!
Once the baby is old enough to pick up a toy - he's old enough to put it away! I am trying to make it part of their lives - in our family we work together so that I don't feel like the family slave and that the work of keeping our house going is something we do together!
Wow! Bryssy I'm very impressed! We have been handing out small chore responsibilities, like setting and clearing the table. Everyone is responsible to clean up their room before they can be done with quiet play time. But I have been feeling the pull to start giving them more. It is more my struggle to be ok with things not being done "right" all the time. This is very motivating to get more serious about handing out more responsibilities. :)
WOW Bressy! That sounds amazing... I want to get my kids on that plan! : )
My almost 3 year old likes to throw things in the garbage, but I think he can start clearing his plate after dinner as well!
Anyone have tips on how to get the hubby to help out more too! : )
I'm totally agreeing with Bryssy...
My children (5, 4 & 2) also have "jobs" as they like to call them and they don't get paid.
On laundry day they are in charge of folding their own clothes. The 2 year old just does bibs and washcloths. The 4 year old is in charge of panties and sock matching. And the 5 year old does pants, shirts, and helps the other two. They all put away their own piles of clothes.
They clear their own dishes and help set the table with place mats and silverware.
And recently my 5 year old started unloading the dishwasher. It started out as "mommy can I help you" so i handed her the utensil basket (minus the sharp knives of course) and she put the silverware away. Then a couple of days later she wanted to do the cups. Now she unloads everything (still no knives) She is learning to load it. She did get rewarded for this "chore" with having a friend from school come and play-this just made her more eager to help.
I gave up things being done "right" all the time long ago...I work at my tasks along with them and supervise. I do some gentle reminding when we get off track, but they both love having their own lists and pretty much do it on their own now. I put stickers on the right buttons to push on washer, dryer, dishwasher, etc. to help.
My kids help out around here, too and they can earn special rewards. We have jars and they each have daily and weekly "acts of service" that they are responsible for. They are part of this family, so they are doing "acts of service" for other members of that family. If I see that they are doing their "aos" without complaint or being reminded then I will stick a special reward stick (we use the giant popsicle sticks) in their jar. It might be for extra computer or tv or video game time. Or something really big like a date with mom/dad or a trip to get a frosty. It has worked wonders around here! My 2 year old even wants her own service sticks to keep up with her siblings who are 13, 11 and 6!
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