I recently read an article about housework and about whose “jobs” are whose and so forth. It made me think of my own house and about the arguments that come with asking other people to do some cleaning or chores.
I’m a SAHM, so I get that a lot of the “housework” is going to fall on my shoulders. But I get frustrated when I ask for someone else in the house to do something, and it’s like I asked them to build a spaceship and fly to the moon!
I’ve learned having an older child, that this is not the response that I want to get from my younger two kids, especially as they get older.
The article that I just read also talked about showing kids the importance of taking care of a house and our belongings. I could not agree more with trying to instill this concept into my kids. It’s not that I’m not willing to do what needs to be done around the house, or the fact that I could use some “help.” It’s more about teaching them the responsibility of keeping things clean, organized, and tidy, so that we can reap the benefits of being able to find our things, keep our clothes/toys lasting longer, and not let things pile up into a gigantic mess that seems to be too big to tackle.
That being said, I thought it would be a great idea to share some age appropriate housework that kids are very capable of doing. I have used this chart from The Happy Housewife as a guide for all of my kids to keep things fair, and know that I’m not asking too much of them. I think this would be a great tool to use along with a reward system or an allowance system for the family too. I like using nonmonetary rewards, such as: picking dinner for the night, staying up an extra 10 minutes, or an ice cream date!
Do your kids help around the house or have daily chores? Is it a struggle? What ideas have you come up with to help ease the pain of asking kids to have some jobs around the house?
