Household Chores?

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blackforest

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If you have (or have had) kids, what does your chore system look like? Do you use charts or any other method to organize tasks? Do you do allowance, or is your philosophy more that they shouldn’t expect compensation for contributing to the household? Do you use any other incentives? How much slack does the full-time-working parent pick up?

I have a system that was working well for awhile, but things are “plateauing” a bit . . . 😏
 
  1. Keep one’s room clean and organized (should be done once a week at least)
  2. Clean up after yourself in common areas, or with dishes, etc (done immediately)
  3. Alternate cleaning of common areas by the week, different people doing it each week
  4. If someone is sick or otherwise can’t do their part, alternate who has to take up their slack
  5. If you see something that needs to be done, even if it isn’t your job do it if you can.
  6. Rewards only given for going especially beyond, like cleaning the whole house when you didn’t have to.
Incentives: the mental well-being that comes with a good house, no pests, little dust, and being able to move around barefoot and always find what you need.

Note on alternation: oldest to youngest, and least busy/sick to sickest and most busy. A full time worker should have to only clean up after themselvea, but on days when they aren’t working they must do more.

No organizational tools really needed since everyone should already know what to do (clean your room, after yourself,common areas on your assigned day).

I don’t have kids but that is what was done with me, and along with encouragement about how labor is blessed, it makes you intolerable or filth to where you will clean spontaneously if you see a slight bit of dust, even more than when you have to.
 
blackforest said:
How much slack does the full-time-working parent pick up?
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A good way to cure the “full-time” working parent of an attitude of “I worked all day - why isn’t (insert complaint) done?” is to take a two week vacation and leave them home in charge of everything, kids included; if they have even a slight clue after you return, they will realize that their “full time” job only amounted to 8 hours a day, and the workload at home is literally “full time”.
 
My grandkids live with us half time. They have chores assigned and I tried to make a chart but that kind of petered out quickly. I’m not a huge stickler for chores getting done immediately but some general rules are…
Dishes are done daily
Sweeping floors and wiping down the bathroom weekly
Vacuuming their rooms weekly which also means it must be picked up to see the floor!
Doggie poops once weekly

I pay an allowance. If one child has to do the chores of the other one then they get paid by the other one for doing it. For some reason, they really hate giving up any of their money to the other so will make sure they get their own done!

The teenage boy is really good about his chores. I have more problems with the 11 yr old girl as she’s ADD to begin with and money isn’t a good motivator for her but she knows she must complete her assignments before leaving for dads house and if I start doing her chores with her, she then completes them on her own. You do have to be adaptable to their personalities.

Even though I do pay them, they are always reminded that living together requires cooperation. The money is for their wants and required is 1/3 to savings, and 10% to charity. They both are very good about that and get to pick the charity each month. We read through various charities and check them out on charity navigator so they see which ones are good. They actually like doing that! I’m so proud!
 
otjm said:
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Pattylt:
Doggie poops once weekly
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You were lucky! Mind did that at least twice a day… 🤣 🤣
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CLEANING…cleaning up doggie poops weekly. No, my dog is anything but constipated! 😂😂😂
 
My kids are still pretty young (6, 4, and 1). Their responsibilities are to clean up their rooms and play areas, take their laundry down to be washed, put their own laundry away after I wash and sort it, clean up their area after they eat, and prepare the yard for mowing. We don’t have a chart because most of these tasks are done on an “as needed” basis. I wish that I could say that requiring them to clean up their play areas encouraged them to make less of a mess, but it doesn’t. I feel like that is a constant battle, as in multiple times a day.
 
We All live here in this house, we a work to keep it clean and orderly.

Kids need the responsibility of doing their part, I loathe lists and payscales.

When I was a kid, we rotated between vacuuming, dusting, bathroom cleaning. As long as all three were done each day, we were free to negotiate between us kids.

We did our own laundry from the age 8 or so, and communal things like towels we simply did them because we need towels. To this day I love folding laundry. Another sib would do the towels wash and dry, I’d cold everything for anyone for any load, others would put away.

I graduated to cooking home meals, when I cooked then the others swapped out dishes.

We had a family business and were paid for our work in that business. Had checking accounts at age 13 to learn how to manage our money in the real world.
 
Husband does out side I do inside kids do their bedroom and thier dishes.i do laundry and fold it for them to put away.

I tried them doing laundry and they would wash towels with black
 
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