In my house, there are three girls and then two boys and then a little girl. The older three are all in highschool, the boys are in middle school and the little girl is going into 2nd grade.
The older three girls each get a section of the house, one does kitchen, one laundry and the third bathrooms, the other living spaces are split between the bathroom and laundry girls and the dining room goes to the kitchen girl. The laundry and bathroom girls each get a boy helper, and the boys are also in charge of the trash, cleaning their room, making their beds, putting away their clean clothes, and cleaning up the yard. The kitchen is the hardest job because it is constant and that person has to help with all the meals. The little girl she is just in charge of cleaning up after herself. She has to clean up her own clothes, bring her dishes to the kitchen, clean up her toys, and help the kitchen person by Swiffer vacuuming the kitchen.
The punishment for not finishing chores during the week is that we have to get up at 6:30 on Saturday, we can’t do anything until our jobs are done on Saturday and more often than not, we get even more jobs as punishment. Saturdays are supposed to be yard days, so if we have to spend them inside doing chores, our parents want to make sure we have enough time to do both.
The house needs to be clean by the time our parents get home from work, or we have to spend the rest of the night cleaning.
The one thing that I have found that makes cleaning almost fun, is when my parents aren’t at home, we blast music like YMCA, and when they are home, I use and I-pod. Music really makes work fun.
The thing I hate the most, and I have to work on this, is when my parents ask me to do other people’s jobs. I hate it because I have rushed through mine and mine are done, but now, because I am done, I am almost being punished for doing my jobs quickly. I know this is the wrong attitude, and I am working on it, but I thought I would share that with you.
Also know that each person is different. My sister likes lists, because then she knows what she needs to get done, and then she can do it. I much prefer to be left alone, and then just asked, “Could you wash the floors and clean out the fridge this week.” sort of thing. Then I can do it when I find the time, and I am free to clean things that I see need to be cleaned.
One of my brothers is totally motivated by money, but my other brother couldn’t care less, he prefers spending time with my dad to money, so a game of basketball is his reward.
It is different for every person, try to make it fun for each person by assigning their jobs accordingly.
Also, my parents didn’t use money most of the time because they didn’t want to teach us that money was the most important thing in the world. Instead they taught us that we should do our jobs out of love for them, and out of respect for all that they do for us.
Seriously, a chore chart seems babyish for him.