Wednesday, October 07, 2009

A real chore

So I'm working on a chore list.

My kids are 6 and 9, and my wife and I decided it was time for them to take an active role in the upkeep of the house.

We have always had expectations that our kids would take a part in the household upkeep.

We might as well have had expectations that they would turn into aardvarks because it was as likely to happen.

It's not that my kids don't help. It's that kids don't see a messy house the same way adults do.

For example, when I walk through the house in the evenings, I will often say things such as:

* "Why is there a shoe in the den and another one in the microwave?"

* "Who eats cereal in the bathroom!?!?!?!?"

* "Why are there dinosaurs in the dishwasher?"

So my kids aren't the best housekeepers. But we sat them down the other day and explained to them that we were going to start having chore lists. They expressed their excitement for this by, in unison, saying, "NOOOOO!!!!!"

I told them that we all have to take a part in keeping the house up because we all live here. They responded, "NOOOOO!!!!!"

Not the best cheerleaders for Team House Clean.

I explained to them that taking care of your house showed respect for your house and that everyone in the family played an integral part in making sure that we lived in an environment we could be proud of, one that we wanted to invite others to be a part of. Their blank stares were an inspiration to blank stares everywhere.

My wife saved the moment. "We'll give you an allowance," she said.

Amazingly, they were suddenly on board.

So the first thing to do was to come up with the chores that would comprise the list.

The kids began offering up their suggestions of how they could best be utilized in the new chore list/allowance world they lived in.

Allie said that she would really like to be in charge of the den. "Uh, Allie," I said, "is that because that's the room where the TV is?"

She began a detailed explanation of how, while TV was in fact in that room, that would actually help her clean BETTER.

Parker opted to clean the driveway. On his scooter.

Clearly, my wife and I needed to drive this bus.

We decided that we will come up with a handful of standard to-dos - make beds, put dirty clothes in hamper, get cereal bowl out of bathroom. The other chores would rotate.

The kids asked us what kind of chores these would be.

The first I offered up was rounding up all of the toys each day and making sure they were put in their proper places.

"But what if they're Parker's toys?" Allie asked.

It was at that point that I launched into my well-rehearsed soliloquy about how there was NOTHING downstairs that was mine, yet I clean it up, and how I was pretty sure that I had not worn ANYONE'S Barbie tennis shoes, yet they still find homes, and how I don't recall wearing Star Wars pajamas, yet I put them in the hamper...

And then my wife stepped in, moved me to the side, and, possibly, slipped me some medication.

My wife, who as you can see is the sane parent, explained to the kids that there would be a rotating list of chores that we would all take part in, and some days you may take your brother's shoes upstairs and some days you make take your sister's books upstairs, but in the end, we would all be a better household because we were all working together. I stood by and twitched a little bit.

Hopefully, our chore plan will go smoothly, and the kids will, in no time, feel that they are an important part of keeping a house running.

In the long run, our house and our kids will all be better for it. And maybe we can keep the dinosaurs out of the dishwasher.

1 comment:

MrsS said...

It's good for kids to know they are NEEDED in the family. Chores is a way of accomplishing that. (Would the home and family function without them?)

A friend once told me she assigned chores to her children by their age: 6 years old-six chores.