Getting Your Child to do Chores

My six-year-old is reaching that stage when he’s “forgetting” to do his chores. I know it’s genetic; he got that from me. There were plenty of times when I was growing up when I “forgot” to do the things my mother told me to do.

Payback’s a pain in the tuckus.

My mother had this idea of a Job Jar. Half of the slips of paper were jobs while the other half were rewards. You had a fifty-fifty chance of choosing a job or a reward. Great idea, right? Except she didn’t realize that 12-year-olds have mastered the art of sabotage. One day when she wasn’t around, I took out all the jobs and crumpled up the slips into little balls while the rewards remained smooth. The next few times I drew out of the job jar, magically they were all rewards. Huh. How’d that happen? Mom wised up and the Job Jar went away. But I had a few weeks of going out to dinner, the movies, and fishing, in the meantime.

Now, I’m at that point where I have to train my own children to help out around the house. I’m a big old meanie because I believe that as a member of the family, you’re expected to help out and pull your weight. If you make the mess, you clean it up. I believe that if I give you clean clothes, you should be expected to put them away. I’m not making them scrub toilets or anything, but there are some basic responsibilities that I make my kids do (put their dishes in the dishwasher, make their own beds, put their toys away, put clean and dirty clothes away, etc.). Beyond that, I just ask for their help. Or if they are wanting to do something special, maybe they’ll volunteer.

A mom can dream, can’t she?

Anyway, a friend send me this link that makes a customized job chart. You can even add Scooby Doo, Sponge Bob, or Dora the Explorer on the chart. How cool is that? So this morning I set up the days of the week and a list of daily expectations my son needed to do. He really liked it, and I didn’t have to boss him around all morning. I am loving that.

It may not work for an extended period of time, but I’m going to give it a shot. Maybe I’ll take him out for ice cream or do a reward of some sort when he’s completed the chart. I definitely won’t fall into the trap of–if you do this, you’ll get this. I’m more of a–you’re EXPECTED to do this, and maybe once in a while happy surprise rewards will happen.

So now I’m wondering about the whole allowance thing. I was given a weekly allowance and I used it to save up for things I wanted. My husband isn’t really into that. What have you guys done for your kids? Or if you don’t have kids, did you have an allowance?