Living with your family under one roof comes with some challenges, such as house chore division, especially if your kids are too young or in their teens. The idea of sweeping the floor or watering the plants may not be the most exciting for them, as they’d rather play or hang out all day. But assigning them simple responsibilities, such as a house chore will be important for their personal growth. It’s also a way to instill discipline in them.
Here are some ways to ensure that everyone does the house chore they’re assigned to:
1. Decide Which Chores Can Be Performed Easily
Chores such as sweeping, mopping, and washing the dishes, can easily be done by your kids with supervision. Meanwhile, difficult tasks such as window cleaning cannot be performed by a young kid, a teen, or even an adult who doesn’t know how to properly do it in the first place.
In this case, hiring a professional residential window cleaner will be necessary. You can also entrust gutter cleaning and deep cleaning to the experts. They’re highly helpful especially when you’ve just moved into a newly constructed home in Ogden or any other great location, which is normally filled with dust and other post-construction mess.
2. Organize Your Division System
As a parent, you want to be always on track about the status of each house chore. There are many ways of how to organize your division system, such as employing a rotational system, making printable charts, or by simply listing them.
In a rotational system, the chore will not be assigned to one person alone. For example, on Monday, you’re assigned the dishes, and on the next, it’s the laundry. Every member of the family gets equal chances of performing easy and hard chores.
If you choose to print a chart, that would also be easy; many templates are available online for free. You only have to indicate which chore should be done by a specific family member, and tack down the printed copy to your fridge.
In a traditional to-do list, you only have to write down each house chore that needs to be done along with the name of whom you’re assigning them to. You can change the names weekly so that everyone gets the chance to do all sorts of chores. Of course, for young kids, only assign them chores that are within their capabilities.
Other than those three, there are several other ways to divide house chores, so don’t hesitate to explore your options.
3. Set a Deadline for Every Chore
Your kids won’t likely start doing a chore if they’re not under pressure to do so. Therefore, making them aware that a time limit exists for every chore can motivate them to start immediately. Give them rewards if they’re able to finish within the time limit, and penalties if they did the opposite. Check if the chore is done properly. For example, if you make them sweep the floor but there are visible missed areas, don’t count it as a success.
4. Give Them Rewards
When your kids are promised rewards for finishing a chore, they will start to look forward to it rather than dread it. To motivate them even more, set standards or rules. For example, only give your child the reward once they’ve finished a specific task properly five times. If your child wants more rewards, then raise the standards as well.
With these great ideas, there won’t be fights anymore about who should do which. With proper organization and rewards, it could even be possible that your family members would fight (in a friendly way, of course) on who gets the first dibs on a household chore.