Are Your Kids Doing Enough Chores?

Posted by Diane Laney Fitzpatrick Apr 12, 2008

My kids aren't making their beds again.

We started out the school year on a high note: with me giving them a lecture/pep talk/inspirational speech about how awesome my life would be if they made their beds before they left for school.

For the first few weeks, they did wonderfully. They not only made their beds, but they picked up their clothes off the floor, hung up their towels, and put the cap on the toothpaste.

By early October, however, they started to let certain things go, until by January, I was back to making the beds and doing everything else. So I repeat my lecture/pep talk/inspirational speech and the dance continues.

The parents I admire most are the ones who have clear, consise rules about what chores their kids are responsible for and specific consequences when they fail to do them. These kinds of parents are the most together people on earth, in my opinion.

My friend Leslie has a rule that no one leaves the kitchen after dinner until the entire kitchen is cleaned up, the dish washer is loaded, the table cleared off, the food put away, and the counters wiped off. It seems everyone's in such a hurry to get the heck out of that crowded room, that her kitchen gets cleaned up super fast. She's in front of the TV knitting before she knows it.

Do you have a system for getting kids to do their chores that works for your family? Share it with us on the Stay-at-Home Parents' discussion board.