Ok, I want to hear from people with children and people who remember being children or find they are just an adult child. I need some advice on setting up chores for my sons.
Almost daily I ask the boys to unload the dishwasher. You would think I asked them to unload the dishwashers of a cruise ship after the formal dinner. What the hell? In my mind I’m thinking, ‘listen up Thing 1 and Thing 2, this is like the sole job I give you. We have a man maid for cryin’ out loud coming every other week. So God forbid if you help me with the dishes.
And would you like to see the extra time they take for putting away dishes, specifically the Tupperware cabinet?
TA-DA…..
JENGA! JENGA!
I love how the blue water bottle is balancing “just so” on the Pyrex measuring cup.
I think part of the reason why I’m so bad with money is because I never had an allowance to manage. My mother gave me the option of a fixed weekly income or a “do your chores, ask for it when you want it and a good portion of the time, I’ll say yes.”
My father tried the allowance thing till I became a smart ass at the age of 11.
“Your gonna get $2 whole dollars every week as an allowance,” he said.
“Oh wow, you’re too generous dad. Perhaps I could take those $2 dollars and buy 1 schrunchie a week at Rite Aide. Or I could save up for a banana clip. The possibilities are endless with this sort of income.”
He gave me the evil eye, tucked it back into his money clip and declared there would be no allowance. In fact, we would now be working for free.
‘Yeah, we’ll see about that,’ I said under my breath, on my way to ask my mom to take me to the mall.
Current Dilemma
So here I am now with 2 completely ungrateful children who find the dishwasher a challenge and always “forget” that I asked them to clean something.
I need suggestions people! I found this great website: My Job Chart and we used it until the boys got their Nooks and were like “screw you mom, we got what we came for and we are outtie.”
So I’m thinking like $5 a week for the oldest (10) and $2 for the youngest (7). Oh my God, I just said a $2 allowance. I’ve turned into my father. No, I’m worse than my father. I got $2 in the 80’s. With inflation, $2 is now what? $10?
Here are the basic chores I would love to see them do:
- brush teeth (trust me they struggle with this)
- make bed
- unload dishwasher
- feed Chi-chi
- fold 1 load of laundry a week
- sweep the floor
Not enough chores? I’m open for suggestions. What did you guys do? God, I want to be the kid again and not worry about this stuff.
Well, there were always the dishes to be washed, dried and stacked away (orderly), later cooking once a week. Then, as of the age of ca. 8, the ironing, too. Our room (three kids in one, I am the oldest, so I was also made responsible of the outcome) was always our own responsibility (picking up, closets etc.). As of ten, also changing the sheets. Hanging up the washing, help in the garden (weeding I hated, also picking berries for marmalade). At my grandparents were the loved chores: mowing grass and foddering the pigs, collect the eggs from the hens hut, lead the cow or cows up into the woods to graze for the day and fetch them again at night, water them and get them in, help with haying and so on. Of course, later, when my mom fell ill for a long while, I had to run the entire household for a family of five. But that was a different story.
Oh, the allowance? There was absolutely none, until one of my teachers suggested to my parents, that maybe it would be educational for me to learn to have some money to call my own. I was twelve or so, when I first got 10 Schillings a week, which today would be close to one dollar, but then, it was start of the eighties, too.
We run a communist type community here at the cracTpot household. It is expected that basic needs for each worker are met by the community, and there is no more to be obtained through working more than what is required. For example, if a worker puts in more time at work, he sees no additional reward, and production is minimally affected (ain’t that the truth!). It has obviously backfired as communism tends to do and has veered towards a dictatorship with the children obviously being the dictators and me the embittered working class eating the crusts off their bread and sacrificing everything in sake of state. On the bright side I don’t have to worry about not being organized enough to have cash on hand and left to write IOU’s on post it notes which I’m pretty sure would further destroy my credibility as a parent…so there’s that lol
WELL WRITTEN! At first I thought you were going to say you were the dictator but I guess that makes sense. 🙂 I love that you call it a communist household!!
My parents made a list of chores and actually let my brother and I choose a couple that we were willing to do. That way, we still had to help around the house in some way, but didn’t have to do something that we truly, truly hated. I chose unloading the dishwasher and sweeping so I could avoid the horrors of vacuuming 😀 I really don’t remember how much we were paid though – maybe $5 a week?
That sounds nice however I am confident it would turn into a knockdown dragged out fight with my boys. 🙂
I just taught Munch how to sort his clothes and make his bed. I don’t really have any chores for him to do yet. But, I will figure it out and get back to you. I think $5.00 a week is fine for most children.
Those are good starters. Setting the table is another good one. It can’t look any worse then when my husband does it.
Room, board, transportation, clothing & shoes, hobby supplies, WiFi, etc, aren’t enough reason to do chores? Pfffttt! I taught my son to do all of the chores as soon as he was physically large enough to gain the skills he would need as an adult. I did give him money, but not on a weekly basis. He did his laundry or wore dirty clothes. He made his own lunch or went hungry. He helped in the yard or faced my wrath. Actions have consequences. I was a dictator because nothing else worked. He moved out and managed his own affairs for five years.
Of course, he’s moved back in with me, so perhaps my method wasn’t all that successful…
Well that didn’t turn out like I expected. I’m sure it has nothing to do with your method. Now if he’s still there in a decade, then maybe it was. 🙂
It’s been a year and I AM NOT having a good time >:-( It seems to be a generational thing – many “kids” his age are moving back home and staying there. I’m refining my torture methods (and, yes, they do include doing chores) in an effort to convince him that moving out would be easier than staying, but he’s a stubborn little brat.
I’m a firm believer that if they’re old enough to speak in sentences, they’re old enough to chip in with home maintenance. We pay weekly allowances based on age: $1 x 1.5 years per each child. Until the kidlen gets a *real* job outside the home and are earning money from the outside. And then they get bupkis. Mom and Dad don’t get paid to chip in to the clan’s fold, so neither do you, Darlin’.
We have a rotating chart that the kidlens do daily. The chart changes weekly so they don’t get too bored — or have the apparently AWFUL chore of kitchen duty for too long. We don’t have mutiny insurance here at Clan Allen.
Best of luck!
That helps though I don’t think I could afford that structure. It would have to be like 4x’s a year. Ha! But that structure does give me some ideas. Thank you for sharing!
Best wishes to you, Darlin’! XOXOX
Thank you so much!
Holy Smokes @Micki Allen, that means your 10 year old is making $780 a year?!?! That’s more disposable income than I treat myself to…wanna adopt me?
Wait…can we do that? If so, I would like to be daughter #2. cracTpot, you were in line first so you get to be first, then me. Hold on….let me do the math here……
Holy shit balls, that would be like $58.50 a week for me. Are utilities included or is it just trash? 🙂
Brush teeth, make bed, fold your clothes are not chores at my house they are personal responsibilities they only benifet the individual doing the task. There is no reward other then the completion of the task for these.A chore is a task that benifets the house hold or other individuals I.E. load, unload dish washer( complete task) properly feed and water the animals, sweep the entire floor spot mop (mop entire floor) as needed daily weekly task the allowance is a set amount of chores don’t get done allowance goes away I have a 15 yo girl and a 9yo boy you gotta stay on top of them!
Someday….I hope to have the will to be like you! You bring up all amazing and true points and I agree with all of it! I almost need to work on myself to get to where you are at! Thank you for dropping a line!!!