Be a Better Parent Challenge - Day 28 - Get your kids involved

So did you find a reason to celebrate, yesterday? While we ended up not getting any cake due to a later dinner, my husband ended up enjoying an afternoon of golf while I enjoyed the pool, playground, and turtles with the kids.

And we gave him one heck of an expensive birthday card courtesy of the hotel gift shop.

Completely worth it, of course.

Today's Challenge #28: Get your kids involved should help make you think of ways that even your littlest kids can get involved in your daily household duties. I realize that this can make chores even more like chores, but overall, it's good for them to have some responsibility, and it will, at some point, give you a break.

We've tried various chore charts around our house, but the best one thus far was at the prompting of the lovely Mir of Want Not and Woulda Coulda Shoulda, who uses a simple laminated daily checklist that her kids can see and mark off as they go. Then we do allowances based on their age (so $6 and $3) which I track on a sheet that we keep on our fridge.

So far, this has worked well, even for Drew - and we include things like "Go potty" "Brush Teeth" (both naptime and bedtime) since he tends to give us a hard time with those. However, he also has jobs like "Empty the dishwasher silverware" and "Make your bed" too.

When I'm home, I'll post pictures, but basically, I printed out a list with their picture and a spot for them to mark with a washable marker. We have them hanging on our pantry door.

Quinlan has more challenging tasks like setting the kitchen table, letting the dog out, and emptying the main dishwasher (sans the glass ware). I also need to add "practice violin" to her list as well.

Now, we don't necessarily have this for Margot (2), but she certainly does help out around the house. Here are some other things we have the kids do:

*Laundry game - Quinlan can fold her clothes, but Drew and Margot can help sort their own clothes out and make a pile. I then have them do a toss (basketball style) for a small prize.

*Recycling - We keep our recycle bin right outside the door to our garage, so all the kids can put stuff out when I need it.

*Emptying trash - My son loves trash trucks, so his job is to help me empty all the house trash cans.

I'm sure there are plenty more things that I'm not thinking of, but so far this year, this system has been working well. Feel free to share what works for your family.

Comments

[MU]

Good point, CP - the list for us includes what they need to do to be contributing members.

And that's what I'd reco, Fibi - start her on her birthday (or heck, now!) and make a list of regular "duties." I'd make the stuff you're doing together - like the dusting, etc. extra. My husband will pay the kids to do the big stuff - which is completely his thing and fine by me. He'll hand out the money and I don't have to worry about it.

But as for the regular stuff, it's daily duties - like making bed, emptying dishwasher, etc.

[Child Perspective]

It's surprising to many parents how much kids love helping with stuff around the house. Especially if they don't hear us complaining about it. Kids are eager to contribute.

We use a list to help get our older child out of the door each morning without feeling like we need to micromanage the process. I describe the process here in End the Morning Struggle Overnight: http://www.childperspective.com/mindful-parenting/end-the-morning-struggle-overnight/

Paying an allowance for chores can backfire. Our kids get an allowance every week just for being contributing members of the family, but I am not comfortable paying them for jobs that are expected and I otherwise don't get paid for.

[ABCfibi]

At what age did you start the allowance? My daughter will be four in a couple of months. Right now she loves to help vac, dust and do laundry. But at some point she is going to stop wanting to do those things and they will become "chores." It is also a huge challenge for me to be patient and let her do things, when I know I can get it accomplished ten times faster.

[MU]

We do a weekly allowance, Maria, so long as the charts are completed at the end of the day.

I used to try to track them with a sticker chart or something (like end of the day then they get a sticker on another chart), but it just got to be too much. So, for now, I just pay them on Fridays (I used to use an online tracker but they like to be able to see how much they have) and then when we go shopping and they want something, they know how much money they have.

Quinlan was super excited to turn 6 since she knew she'd get a raise.

[Maria]

I like this idea. The allowance is weekly, monthly?