CHORE CHARTS - CHILDREN AND ADULTS

While raising my 3 children, there was much controversy in the household surrounding the basic family chores from dishes to lawn care.  Everyone creates a mess and lives together so why not everyone take part in maintaining the home, their personal effects, and the outside routine care.  Well.  This is not an easy undertaking.  It requires discipline, follow up, and modification as needed.  One household supervisor is required to keep the flow going smoothly and the disgruntled comments and fighting to a minimum.  

With varying ages and responsibilities like school, work, athletics, and community events this will challenge the best of negotiators and record keepers.  You see; no one wants to replace the toilet paper roll or admit to clogging the toilet or drain.  Laundry-how do you keep the piles down?  And, what about energy related tasks like turning off the lights in vacant rooms, maintaining a comfortable house temperature, or shutting the front door?  

You may get lucky and have one member of the family share the responsibility of supervisor; an assistant.  How can chores be controlled and completed and still maintain a degree of sanity while enjoying a pleasant meal at the end of a day without anxiety and an upset tummy?   I don't suggest incorporating anxiety drugs or antacids.  My suggestion will be a bit difficult to stomach at first and may cause some head scratching but, it worked for years for us.  INDEX CARDS!

Yes, I used 4 lined index cards on the front of the refrigerator-a hole punched in the center and a metal ring going through to easily flip the weeks.  Each card was representative of the chores of the house such as:  taking out the trash and bringing the trash cans back, mowing the lawn/shoveling the sidewalk, washing the dishes, making meals, completing homework, laundry, etc.  The names of the family members were listed on the left and the chores across the line on top of the card.  The week number entered in the space above.  I entered a black check mark under each chore assigned to the family member.  For week two, name one was replaced by name 2, and dropped to the bottom and so forth.  Name two adopted the chores of name one and name one adopted the chores of the last person.  After week 4, you were back to week 1.  Everyone had to clean their own room and make their own beds.  

Interestingly enough, each one of my children wanted to wash their own laundry by age 12.  MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENT!  AND, chore charts help prepare your children for a future when mom and dad won't be around to pick up after them. It also keeps the quarreling down.   Pick your battles: if they don't want a clean room and make their bed-close their door.  That is their prerogative.  Give them some control over their own space.  Let each member decide how they want to lay their head down at night or have friends visit their room.  If they keep their room relatively neat, they will have the choice to entertain their friends in the family room or the privacy of their own room.