All kids need to learn how to clean the house, mow the lawn and take care of their own messes, and one of the easiest ways to teach these skills is by creating a chore chart for each of your kids. Require that everyone pitch in around the house, and not only will your job become far easier, but your children will learn how to take care of themselves. You don’t want your kids going off to college without the essential skills of an adult. Following are eight tips for creating successful chore charts for your kids.
1. Make the Chore Chart Interactive
One of the most important lessons to be learned from creating a chore chart is the sense of accomplishment it provides. Kids who simply do their chores as expected aren’t really getting anything out of the experience. To resolve this problem, make your chore chart interactive. For example, each time your child completes a chore, he or she gets to put a gold star sticker on the chart. Even crossing the chore off the chart can provide a sense of accomplishment.
2. Set an Example
Chore charts are not simply an excuse for child labor; they are meant to serve a purpose. Try setting a chore time when you and the kids are all working hard. If the kids are doing their chores while you watch television or sit at the computer, they are learning the exact opposite if what you are trying to teach them.
3. Accept Suggestions
A chore chart doesn’t have to signify impending doom; you can get your kids excited about it. A successful chore chart is one that produces the desired result: a sense of responsibility and accomplishment. So if your kids request a different colored chore chart or if they want to change up the system, be ammenable to those ideas. Consider yourself lucky to have kids who want to take an active role in the chore chart.
4. Implement a Rewards System
While you don’t necessarily need to pay your children for each chore they complete, a successful chore chart usually involves some type of reward. For example, you could give each child that completes his or her chore an extra hour to stay up on Saturday night. Or, if you’d prefer to make it a group effort, take all the kids out for McDonald’s on Friday if all of the chores have been completed.
5. Demonstrate the Necessity of Chores
Some parents will have the stomach for this, while others won’t. If your children put up a fuss about the chore chart, show them why it’s necessary. Go one or two days without doing any of the chores on the chore chart, and your children will see what happens. They won’t be too happy when their school spirit shirts aren’t clean to wear on Friday or their favorite drinking glasses are still sitting in the sink when they want to use them.
6. Clearly Define Consequences
You don’t have to be a dictator when creating a successful chore chart, but there should definitely be consequences for failing to do chores. For example, if your kids don’t do the laundrey, they can’t watch television until it is done. The consequence should fit the crime, however, so be considerate of that. If your child has a lot of homework and simply doesn’t have the time, offer to help with both the chores and the school work.
7. Alternate Chores
Doing the same thing from week to week is akin to holding the same factory job position for twenty years. Don’t let your kids fall into a slump; instead, alternate chores from week-to-week. If Sarah does the laundrey and Michael handles the dishes this week, let them switch the following week to give them a change of pace. Not only will this keep them from getting bored, but it will also eliminate the familiar complaints: “But his chores are easier!”
8. Stay Consistent
One of the worst things you can do to ruin a successful chore chart is to lack consistency. If you enforce the chore chart the first week, but let it slack the second, you’re sending your kids mixed signals. If you plan to implement a chore chart system, stay with it from week-to-week. If you don’t, your kids will think it isn’t important, which defeats the entire purpose.
