They don't get money for it either. Shelter, food and clothing. That's pay enough, right? I know, I know. I am so mean.
My kids are super excited about it, too. The cleaning. It just makes their day. Every day. And those who have entered my house can attest to it's spic and spany-ness. Snark. Snort.
We have a chart. Oh, yes, we do. It is a spinning wheel. I am totally high tech. You just need two pieces of card stock, a sharpie and a brad. Cut out circles, divide it into chores and children, put a brad in the middle and voila: spinny chart.
I keep asking myself at what point will a clean house be reward enough for my kids to keep their jobs clean? It's a constant battle. Constant frustration. Constant source of contention. It just plain wears me out.
I try and do my Minimum Maintenance (MM) every day. What is MM you may ask? It's a 5 minute clean-up in each room. If you are fast enough, you can get a pretty good cardio workout at the same time you are picking up. Unfortunately, there are times that even MM times 2
On the rare occasion when all the kids are cleaning, they are sure to give progress reports on their siblings.
"Brody's not cleaning!!"
"Camden always gets the easy job."
"She is putting the stuff from her job into my job!"
To which I reply, "You worry about yourself. That is the only person that you can control. You aren't the Mom. You worry about you."
And you know they totally listen to my advice.
So the other day while I was getting ready, I overhear Camden (4yrs old) talking to Briggy (20 mo's).
"Briggy, I have a job for you, okay?"
"Stop being mean!!"
Maybe I should add that to the spinny wheel.
12 comments:
Oh, if I had a dollar for everytime I have to say "worry about yourself, not your sister. . " I would be a wealthy woman! Instead I just get a grey hair everytime!
I love the way you writw!!
Please send some tips my way because I really need to start gettng my four year old in gear. You seem to be doing a fantastic job with them.
Well dagnabbit I never thought of a spinny wheel.. Wait my boys would have kept spinning to get the easiest jobs.. I agree you live here and I pay the bills you have chores. I pay with food , clothes and occasionally some movie you want to watch.
we're mean too...our kids don't get paid either....the air they breathe is worth it right?!! haha
as for the 'she put her job in mine' OMG IF I HEAR THAT ONE MORE TIME I'LL EXPLODE!
never thought of the spinny thing...i just yell and point what they do! might try ur way!
Hilarious! Can you add "No arguing with mom" to the spinny wheel too - I would need that one!
We make our kids work for the priviledge of living in the house also! Real World is what I tell them - Real World! Ha ha
Have a Happy Friday!
So funny. And so like what my mom used to do. We were workers, and we didn't get allowance either.
But, of course, we were always willing and happy to help. Not. We did the work, though, because we weren't allowed out of the house on Saturdays until it was done.
And she used to play Johnny Mathis while we did it. (I can't stand to listen to that man to this day!)
;)
That's funny. I love the spinny chart. Desperately trying to figure out a way to use that.
I also do not pay for chores. It's part of being a family. The "extras" they can do for money include shoveling snow, raking leaves, and the cat litter box. Funny, how I never get any takers on those, even knowing they can make some extra cash :)
With five children in the mix I can totally understand how you need that help. I try to get my daughter to pick up after herself but it is tough work. She does however love helping me with my tasks, I think because it makes her feel all grown up, so she loves cleaning windows and glass doors, putting the cleaning stuff in the dishwasher and turning it on, putting away the laundry etc.
I am sorry to hear about your little trouble with getting kids to do chores...that must be hard. You are the meanest mom ever! (And someday when they grow up, you can visit them and mess up THEIR stuff and not clean up after yourself!) Mwahhahhahhaha....
I have a class of 28 students with daily jobs. One job is to make sure everyone else is doing their job. I don't know if that would work out for you, but it seems to work well in the classroom. This job rotates each week to a new student so they all get the opportunity to play 'management.'
Why is it that making kids work makes us mean? I could have written this post!
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