Not sure if this is a topic I have touched upon before, or one I have always meant to explore further. I do know that when it comes up around our staffroom table at work, the overall consensus is that this is a tough issue to find a groove with. What is the right age to start chores? What are the right chores? Allowance or no allowance or how much allowance?
In our house we have attempted many kicks at this can and nothing has ever really stuck. We have tried a variety of chores; making beds, keeping rooms clean, emptying the dishwasher, cleaning the toy room, putting away laundry…you get the idea.
However, following each effort we seem to truck along for a while and then soon enough the business of life gets in the way, the kids lose interest, or I fail to follow up and follow through. We have tried charts like Melissa and Doug’s as well as papers on the fridge. The kids love the allowance piece for doing their chores ($2.50 a week) but aren’t happy when the weekend comes and they haven’t found the time or made the effort each day to do their chores. Hmmm….reality!
But, I am happy to say that most recently we have found a renewed success around this topic. It seems for my two that is all about finding the right chore! Sarah’s chores are all about pets, which is fitting for my cat obsessed little girl. Twice daily, she clears our two cats’ dishes, feeds them both canned wet food, and dry crunchy food, and changes their water . She even helps her dad do the cat litter three times a week. She has been doing a great job with all of this for a while now!
Nate takes his most recent chores very seriously. He is the recycling guy, taking all of our boxes, cans and jars etc. out to the garbage as well as the garbage each day after school. Before bed he also checks that each of the toilets has toilet paper nearby and on the weekends when I am doing by cleaning he sprays and wipes the doorknobs.
It seems to me that what helped our family turn the corner with the whole chore thing is that each of the chores has an assigned time linked to it. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that our success continues.
What chores do your kids do? What do you do about allowance?
We give him what he wants and expect nothing in return...literally!!
Posted by: Scott | November 29, 2012 at 06:25 PM
Love that Scott. Sounds familiar! And easy. For now it's easy that is.
We tried a bunch of stuff too as the kids were growing up. Always gave up but wish I hadn't. It's just so much easier in the short term to do it yourself that nap and natter and spend more time doing that than getting the job done.
My hat goes off to you Shauna. Good luck!
Chris
Posted by: chris | November 29, 2012 at 10:39 PM