Saturday, February 19, 2011

CHORE LISTS . . .

I HATE cleaning house.  WITH A PASSION.  I think part of it is because it never stays that way.  As much as I HATE cutting grass, at least IF I cut grass, I can pull into the drive every day and see that it's been cut.  The house never seems to stay that way.  And then I get frustrated, and I stop wanting to do it.

Today I started a chore list for the kids.  I've started it many times, but I never follow through, so hopefully I'll be able to stay on top of them this time.  My kids are 11, 9 and 3 1/2.  I know that they shouldn't have the same types of jobs, but I do think they should have jobs.  Do you agree or disagree?  If so, please tell me why.  I keep going back and forth with whether or not this is the right thing to do, so any advice will be greatly appreciated.  Another problem I have is, how much is too much or too little?  Is there any such thing?  Should my 3 YO have jobs also?  If so, what kinds of things should I give her to do?  These are their job lists so far.  I'd really appreciate any input you might have.  Thanks!




2 comments:

Unknown said...

What is "phone"? Is that a cell phone privilege revoked?

I'm not sure that Andrew should have to clean Sarah's room - that doesn't seem quite fair.

Beyond that, the lists seem like a lot for you to keep up with on a daily basis. Keep us posted on how it works out.

Anonymous said...

Jason has a cell phone that we pay for. The jobs listed as PHONE, are the ones he does because he has the privilege of having a cell phone. He doesn't get paid for those, and if he DOESN'T do them on a regular basis, keeping in mind that sometimes life happens and he can't, then he will have his phone taken away until he does them the following week. This has never been a problem. I used to have to fight to get him to empty the dishwasher, now that he knows it's for his phone he just does and doesn't really think too much about it, so that's definitely been a blessing.
I gave Andrew Sarah's room because he's usually the one in there pulling out her toys with her. I figure if he's responsible for putting them away, he'll start thinking twice before pulling them all out. You see, he's always been responsible for HIS room, so he doesn't want the toys pulled out in HIS room. But since I've always cleaned Sarah's room, well, that's a different story! I actually CLEAN her room, he just has to put the toys away.
Keep in mind, they don't do all of these every day. The only ones they do every day is cleaning their room/closets/making bed, brushing teeth/take vitamin. The others are only as they are needed. Jason usually vacuums twice a week. Andrew DOES take FeFe out every day. I only do their laundry once a week, so that's only a once a week chore. I gave them both a bathroom because they are boys and they like to pee everywhere. And it's DISGUSTING! If they start cleaning the bathrooms, I think they'll start to realize how gross it is.
One reason I started giving them more chores is because I've been working more and I come home to a mess and then they get upset because I can't play a game or watch a movie with them. This way, they all take some responsibility.
It's definitely a work in progress, so we'll have to adjust it as we go along, but hopefully it'll work out for all of us.