We all know chores are a necessary cog in the wheel of life, our children however aren’t born with this knowledge, they protest it from the very beginning. You must be creative with the thing, slip it into a fun sandwich for lack of a better descriptive for it. You be like, chores? What chores? We are having fun right here!
So how did I get five small children doing chores and enjoying them, ummm ok they didn’t enjoy doing them. I gave them no other choice, with time and a lot of effort I got them to where they did their assigned list without too much complaining. {There was a lot of that though}
Some days I will admit it was easier to just go ahead and do their list. I had to remind myself, sometimes daily they will grow up one day and I didn’t want five children who shun chores and are ok with living like slobs.
Granted they don’t do things exactly like me and I am totally fine with that. If the clothes are clean, and they are on a heap in the chair or bed, great! We have clean clothes to wear! If they have a system that works for them and there is nothing weird growing in their room, we are GREAT!
The best tip I can hand out to moms, who are trying their best to get children to enjoy their chores, have fun with it. Make a list, have a sticker chart and once the chart is full have a special treat or day for your children. I never paid my kids for chores done though. Just because they will not ever get paid in real life for doing chores. All five of my children survived their chores lists. Although they don’t exactly think it’s amazing to do chores they all do a fine job keeping their space decent.
As I reflect back on those growing up years, I can see I did a mighty fine job getting across to them chores are not an evil monster under their bed waiting to eat them, it’s just the cog you want to keep greased! Let it go for too long though, and it will turn into a monster, smelling up your house, belching dust bunnies and dirty dishes! Have a lot of fun and Chores to you my friends!!