What expectations do you have of your kiddos' participation in household chores? - Page 2

[CherryBomb]

Dd1 is almost 9. She's in charge of keeping her room cleaning, cleaning up after herself, doing her laundry, and helping with the pets (cats, dog, chickens). Sometimes I have her vacuum the living room or help with dishes.

[CherryBomb]

Oh and the two younger ones have to help clean up their room every night, and I try to have them clean up after themselves, like throwing their trash away or putting their dirty dishes in the sink.

[ewe+lamb]

Originally Posted by LynnS6

Everyone in our family is expected to do 15 minutes of chores right after dinner. This is the minimum amount to keep our house from falling into complete and total chaos. I've written down the chores on popsicle sticks and put them in a bag. There are a few random fun ones too (hug mom and dad, stand on one foot and count to 10, etc.) The kids draw chores. Dh and I do what's needed or help the kids. The chores range from starting laundry to cleaning sinks to scrubbing floors or toilets to changing sheets to picking up stuff.

We did this because asking the kids to pick up was becoming more and more of a battle. So, we all work together for 15 minutes. If they're cleaning the toilets, then I can pick up. They hate picking up, but they're happy to scrub a toilet. Go figure. I do have to do the toilets/floors myself sometimes to make sure they're really clean, but my kids are getting better and better. (They're 6 and 9, and this has been our system for 2 years.)

Now that ds is older, we're going to add helping with the dishes to his list of things this summer. He'll have to clear the table and either unload the dishwasher or load it daily.

Both kids clear their own plates. Both are responsible for their own library books. Both clean up spills or other messes they've made.

At 4.5, I think chores are mostly optional. As kids get older, I need them to help more. They also need to learn the skills to care for a house.

ETA: We do chores right after dinner because doing them as part of the bedtime routine kept blowing up. And if we do them right after dinner, we don't interrupt any activity they're involved in.

WOW - this is a great idea - I'm going to start doing this when we go on holiday and hopefully keep it going for when we come back - we're going to my mum's for nearly 6 weeks and if we all pitch in - maybe right after breakfast then life will be so much easier - thank you thank you for this - it'll make our stay so much easier I think - looking forward to doing this and maybe getting dd to write everything down on the lollypop sticks - ooooh i'm inspired!!

[Paeta16]

DD (3 y.o.) has chores that we expect her to do - feed the dog dinner (counting to 3 scoops and cleaning up any spills) she actually enjoys this chore, attempting to make her bed in the morning and organizing it so all of her "friends" are on the bed and picking up her own toys when she is done playing with them (sometimes with help from us depending on the situation). We don't force her to do any of these things but we do strongly encourage her to do them. I guess she is also somewhat responsible for bringing her empty plate and cup to the sink as well.

[KatWozBlue]

My 6 and 3 year olds have to basically pick up after themselves, their toys, their clothes, their plates/cups, etc. My 6 year old walks the dog in the AM and has to feed her as well (luckily she weighs 9 pounds so walking her is not a big problem).

I think I need to expand the 6 year olds role, but I find that during the summer we become a lot more lax, so probably when the school year starts we'll start having him make his bed in the AM. I think its important to teach your kids that it takes a lot of work to have a nice house and that it is everyone's responsibility to make sure it stays that way.

[DevaMajka]

Originally Posted by LynnS6

Everyone in our family is expected to do 15 minutes of chores right after dinner. This is the minimum amount to keep our house from falling into complete and total chaos. I've written down the chores on popsicle sticks and put them in a bag. There are a few random fun ones too (hug mom and dad, stand on one foot and count to 10, etc.) The kids draw chores. Dh and I do what's needed or help the kids. The chores range from starting laundry to cleaning sinks to scrubbing floors or toilets to changing sheets to picking up stuff.

Love it!! I'm going to start this tomorrow! I've tried to instill in ds that we are a family and we help each other out, etc. Still, I get whining and "it's not my job" when I ask him to help out. Obviously, something's wrong with this picture.