Chores—Yuck!! 6 ways to get your child doing chores!
I struggle with my kids doing chores. I often thought well am I expecting too much from a five-year-old or a three-year-old. Then I thought, No. It’s not wrong for me to want them to simply pick up their toys. I am not asking them to do the dishes or anything major. I stumbled across an article on Empowering Parents. I liked it and wanted to share the key factors of it with you.
6 Steps on Getting Your Kids To Do Chores:
1. Stop the show- if your child isn’t doing the chore stop and talk to them. Ask them what their plans are. What they want to do afterward. Appeal to their self-interest.
2. Time It- set a time limit. If you don’t get your room picked up in 10 minutes bedtime is early. Something like that. You can also use it as an award: get it done in ten minutes you can stay up ten minutes later.
3. Give an allowance- if you can. You could use it as an award, but a punishment. If you have to tell them to do the chores take away an amount each time. If you don’t then they get it all.
4. Structure! Plan a time to do the chore. It’s best during school time to do it after school. Less stress for you and the child. But you can have them do it right after school before they can go play with friends. The same concept can go for summer. Chores must be done before something fun can happen! It’s important to have a schedule!
5. Don’t use chores as a punishment. This is important. Because they have to do chores daily so you don’t want them to feel like it’s a punishment daily. The one way it works and I didn’t thank about it until I read it is when one child does something to another child(sibling) that was wrong. You could have them do the siblings’ chores as a way to say sorry!
6. Use a reward system! Kids love rewards. I wrote a post earlier about a good reward: Chuck E Cheese. What kid doesn’t love Chuck E Cheese.
These are great ideas for getting kids to do chores. My question is what age do you start doing chores? What chores do you use for preschoolers, 5-10 years, preteens, and teens? What is your favorite award for doing chores?
