Thinking About Being Consistent and Chores

I keep thinking back to the day when my oldest was about 2 years old, she would help me with laundry and other household chores. My oldest grew up with responsibility and consequences for her actions in a consistent manner. My oldest learned how to help her Mama around the house without complaint, it had simply become a part of her everyday life without hesitation. Now, here I am a Mom of three with the youngest being four and I don’t believe either of my sons have ever really had any consistent chores in the house. Sure they pick up after themselves when asked, usually. Sure they take care of their dishes after dinner by placing them in the sink. They put their dirty clothes in the basket, usually, after getting dressed in the morning and evening. They do not have any consistent chores and that is part of what I am trying to change.

I used to have this cute magnetic chore chart that my oldest helped me make and it was used with enthusiasm, everyone did chores and they had a little magnet creation placed under the column for said chore. I don’t know why I stopped. Another part of that chore chart was if they didn’t listen or what not, they got a tally mark and were deducted “points” from an end of week reward.

One idea I have for when we all move into this new place is to start being consistent as a parent as well as to set up specific chores for the kids. I want to ensure that each child has some chore, it will be every day help around the house as well as ensuring they pick up after their own self. I am no longer picking up toys or crayons because they didn’t pick them up their own self. It’s not my job, my job is to be Mom and ensure I teach them to be well rounded children who will turn out to be great adults who accept and understand consequences and have a sense of pride because they can pick up after their own self, take care of their own self, etc.

My idea is to have a chore chart up with simple chores for the youngest and work the chore ideas up to age appropriate levels. The older kids can have a month to accumulate “reward points” and the younger boys can have a chance to accumulate “reward points” each week. Reason being, the younger kids need a more immediate gratification feeling for their work while older kids can usually handle the waiting period of a month. At the end of each “waiting period” the children will be able to pull a “reward ticket” out of a hat or basket that is created by the parents. From there, each kid will earn a chance to pull out a “reward ticket” that has something written on it based on them getting either money for their chores, extra time with parent, or even extra time with their favorite thing to do such as laptop time or video game, etc. Each child shall pull only one “reward ticket” per month and as parents we may choose to put less “reward ticket” options in the basket if the children did not follow along with their list of chores as expected. Basically they may get some form of a reward but as they consistently do said chores their “earnings” could increase in time as they show us that they do their chores consistently.

This method sounds like it will be a rewarding experience and in turn allow the kids to feel some pride in being an important and responsible part of the household.

What are some ways you have instilled life lessons of picking up after yourself and doing chores with your kids?

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