Ah the dreaded chores and kids. I have talked to many parents over the past 20 years and gotten much insight. I promise you I have no magic solution to chores. I also know that many people will disagree with how we do chores and probably our reasoning behind it.
Andy and I strongly believe that our children are to handle almost all the cleaning of the house. That is a very controversial statement in today’s society. We also do not give allowances and there are varying reasons for that. My job, as their mother, is to manage the house and to fill in or help when needed.
We divide our house into sections. Each child has their zone that they are in charge of cleaning. One person has the kitchen, another the dining room, etc. We have a laminated schedule posted that states on days that certain things should be cleaned and at what time those rooms should be cleaned. For example, the kitchen must be cleaned after every meal, but the bathroom gets cleaned at the end of the day. In each zone I have a laminated paper posted that states what gets done in that room or zone and at what time. For example, the dining room gets swept after breakfast, lunch and dinner. We also post cleaning rules for that room as well. Such as, each person is responsible for their own dishes in the dining room.
We have found having everything posted and keeping expectations clear helps with kids doing their chores consistently. Rooms are to be cleaned daily. Each room has a laundry day and that day includes the deep cleaning of their bedroom. Vacuuming happens that day, trash is taken out that day, anything that doesn’t belong in the room gets taken to where it belongs.
Another thing we do to help with chores is to keep one person in their zone for 2-3 months at a time. This allows the child to get really good at that chore and it also avoids the conflict of ‘I’m not cleaning up that mess because so and so should have done it on their chore day.’ It is also less for me to keep track of. I don’t need to know what day it is and find the kid whose chore is that day. Even when friends and family come over they know who has what room and can help make sure that kid is doing their chore.
There are opportunities in our house for earning money for extra jobs. My oldest daughter currently takes care of mowing the yard to pay for her cellphone during the summer. I will pay kids to weed my flower beds. I have even paid kids to clean my room! I despise organizing kids clothes and will pay for a kid to assist me with that. I also regularly pay for vehicle cleaning.
We have found that keeping chores consistent really helps in the running of our house and prevents less grumbling and complaining. It is not always a perfect system and I always feel like my house is in chaos mode. But, we can get our house back to clean very quickly because everyone knows what their job is and how to do it! In fact, most days we can get the house cleaned (not deep cleaned, but presentable) in about 30 minutes. That may seem like good timing, but it can also be destroyed in as little as 10 minutes!
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