When I was growing up, we used to have our family cleaning day after school on Friday. We'd all kick in, take a few chores and clean the house with my Mom. In addition to that, we had different jobs like emptying the dishwasher, clearing and setting the table. Occasionally, I'd open my yapper one to many times and get an extra batch of chores, like cleaning the kitchen for a month after dinner. In hindsight, I learned to clean and do it right. It doesn't mean I liked it, or that I love cleaning now, but at least I know how.
I had a roommate in college who had no clue. I remember one time I came into the kitchen to find three feet of suds coming out of the dishwasher like something out of bad Brady Bunch episode. It turns out he had filled it with dish soap instead of dish-WASHER soap. Another time I walked into the bathroom in my socks and slipped on my butt. It turns out he had cleaned the bathroom floor with lemon pledge, turning the tile into slippery glass.
A few months ago we instituted a formal chore system. We'd been pretty inconsistent with jobs and how we had the kids doing their chores so we wanted to institute a little more structure in the whole process. After talking to a bunch of friends and family members, we had a family meeting and came up with our chores and agreed to the rules, putting together this Chore Chart that hangs on our fridge.
The first few weeks were a honeymoon period where they loved it. After that, it was a little bit tougher. We're still trying to tweak things, like changing the date and incorporating spot bonuses. We had a follow up meeting where the kid could change up their chores and it seemed to go pretty well.
Our hope is that we can get our kids to learn how to do the work, do it well and do it consistently as part of their participation in the family. I'd love to say that our kids are perfect and that we've been consistent, but I'd be lying. We're hoping that by going through the pain of this now, our kids develop the right work ethic in part due to this. Hopefully this is one of those things they look back on and thank us.
4 comments:
You never helped with the Friday cleaning, and even if you did, I'm sure I had to go back and fix whatever you had cleaned.
Emily should make more then the rest, she has the worst job of them all, cleaning the cat litter box.
Wow guys I'm impressed. Next time you see my boys, ask them how the "chores" idea is working in our household. A little hint, not very well.
We had a chore chart also - however, we could whine all we wanted and it stayed the same. You know, back when parents were in charge. :)
Isn't it funny how we remember cleaning as kids.
My dad got me excited to take out the trash. He called it "trash hunt". Every Sunday night, I went on a hunt around the house for trash. It was pretty clever.
Why does Nate have to clean your bathroom? Or is that the 1/2 bath or something?
My dad always ticked my brother and I off by paying us our allowance in change. Rolled pennies wasn't out of the question. Do you pay in traditional green bills?
How much of their allowance do they have to save?
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