How To Get Your Kids To Do Chores

Getting your kids to help around the house can be a difficult task. Can you blame them? After all, wouldn’t you rather be doing something other than cleaning the house, folding laundry or washing dishes? However, as part of a functioning family, children need to be taught at an early age to contribute to the household. How can you get your child to ditch the attitude and cheerfully help out? Try these tips.

Appeal to Your Child

When your child refuses to do his chores, stop everything and discuss the situation. Don’t go into detail as to why chores are his duty and he needs to learn responsibility. This will not help children understand, especially younger ones. Instead, appeal to his self-interests. What is getting in the way of the chores? What are his plans for after the chores are completed? By convincing him that the sooner he gets his chores done, the quicker he can return to his play time, he’ll learn that it doesn’t work to procrastinate.

Don’t Make Chores Punishment

Many children dislike chores because they equate them with punishment. In reality, everyone in the family needs to do chores, so make sure that everyone is doing their fair share. When your child misbehaves, find another way to punish her besides chores. You can ban her from seeing friends or make her go to bed earlier every night, but making her do dishes or vacuum will only make her resentful. Then, the next time you ask her to do these chores, she’ll put up a fight

Create a Schedule

Most kids rely on structure and this is accomplished by creating a schedule. This means you should create specific times when chores should be completed. For example, perhaps the bedrooms should be cleaned every Saturday morning. If you have pets, designate each morning – before school – as feeding time. If there are other chores, add those to the schedule as well. When the chores become inconsistent, children may feel the need to put them off or avoid them altogether because they’re not part of their normal routine.

Offer an Incentive

Many parents look at this as bribing, but incentives simply increase motivation. We all want to be rewarded for our work. If you work outside the home, don’t you get paid for it? If children know they’ll get a reward at the end, they’ll be more likely to do their chores without hassle. Although many parents offer their children allowances, the rewards don’t necessarily have to be monetary in nature. For example, you can allow your child to stay up 15 minutes later than their usual bedtime or give them a few extra minutes to play their video games or watch TV. If they want additional time, tell them they need to earn it through additional chores.

Get Your Home Sparkling Clean

 Daily cleaning is the only way to keep your home look best. But during this hectic work a helping hand from your kids can make your mind sparkle even more! Never ever forget to give these little cleaning experts in our home a pat on their shoulders after their chores!

Gina Brewton has been in the home improvement industry for past 7 years. She is presently working in a reputed residential cleaning company in Toronto. She is also a part time interior designer. She loves cooking,photography,craft and painting.Follow her on twitter@ginabrewton.

Image credit: maryfrancesmain on Flickr