Hands up if you’ve ever had trouble motivating your kids to complete chores around the house! Everyone! Just as we thought!
Kids notoriously don’t want to do common household activities like keeping their bedrooms’ tidy, making the bed, and doing dishes. It’s seen as banal to their eyes and something that the adults should just do for them. However, it’s best to start young when teaching your kids the sheer importance of chores.
You can take the ‘let the mess pile up’ approach, where you leave your kids to make a mess and wait until they have had enough and tidy it up themselves. (Has this approach actually worked for you? Anyone?) Or you can take matters into your own hands and begin to install healthy, good habits from a young age with the help of a chore and/or rewards chart.
What is a chore chart?
A chore chart is precisely that, a chart that lists all the chores that need to be done around the house and when they need to be completed.
A great example is creating a chore chart that lists all the days of the week at the top of the chart and all the chores that need to be done daily on the left side. This gives you and your kids room to tick off their chores as they complete them. Alternatively, your kids could use stamps or stickers to mark their finished chores to keep the chart fun and entertaining! Make a game out of chores whenever possible.
A great idea is creating and personalising chore charts for each child. This gives them the autonomy and responsibility of completing their tasks, and we all know the satisfaction that comes from crossing things off of to-do lists!
What chores should go on the chart?
This is completely up to you and your partner/kids. Sit down together and devise a list of chores that are reasonable and age appropriate for your children. Including them in the planning process will add an edge of responsibility and seriousness to the tasks. It’s never too soon to teach valuable life lessons.
Below is a sample chore chart from Kids Sorted (Nina Rosace, 2011).
Are rewards suitable?
Rewards are a personal choice between you and your partner. Some parents are happy to pay their kids a small amount of pocket money for completing their tasks, others believe children should offer up help freely. No one can make this decision for you.
If you choose to use rewards, consider utilising the above chart on a points based system. Each task is work a certain amount of points, which are tallied at the end of the day. Small rewards or pocket money is then received when a certain amount of points are reached.
What do you think? Would a chore chart work for you and your family?
