Should Kids Help in the House? YES!!

I am reposting this because we have been discussing it this week. There be many of you who have not seen it before. (Happy Friday)

I am very opinionated on this subject. I strongly believe that children need to be given responsibilities starting very young. You can start out with just holding the basket so they can put their baby toys in them when they are around a year old!
Job boards with pictures work great for toddlers. A toothbrush for brushing their teeth.
The younger you start the kids in learning they have responsibilities around the house, the more responsible children they will become.
Kids like to feel important, to feel needed, to feel like they contribute to the family.
I don’t feel that kids have to be paid to do chores. Do we get paid to clean the house? It is part of being a family. Of course allowances can be fine and used as a family wishes, I am just saying that I don’t believe a child should think that he HAS to be paid to do any work in the house. It is all a matter of how it is presented.
Our kids do get an allowance. It is very small. Just enough to help them learn how to save some money and how it can go into the bank.
I have often had “extra” jobs that can be “paying” jobs in the summer if the kids want to make some money. It might be washing windows or something that I normally wouldn’t have them do. (They think these is great fun actually.) But these are on top of their normal jobs.
Our kids have 2 regular jobs to do for the week. For the 8 year olds it is setting the table, clearing the table, helping in the kitchen, vacuuming or helping carry the laundry. That is on top of the routine making their beds and cleaning their rooms daily. They also put their clean clothes from their cubbys away when needed.

I think that we need to be raising our children to prepare them to be on their own. I have seen many, many children who have never had to do anything to help in their homes and I feel a disservice is being done to those kids.
I have 3 boys who have left the home and are living on their own now and they all know how to do laundry, keep things clean and what responsibilities need to be done. (I can’t say they always do it..but they have been given the proper tools and instruction and they know how.)

Kids Chores – Cleaning Buckets Help

Having kids helping you can be a chore in itself. Making it fun can help to make it easier to have them help you.
Using colors can help to encourage them. It can also help to encourage us!

I make each child a cleaning bucket. It puts them in charge of something and will make them feel more responsible.
You can make it very simple.
Find a fun colored bucket or basket with handles of some kind.

Everyone is going to feel better about picking up a bright colored bucket instead of dirty grungy gray or black one. You can find them for very little at a dollar store and I have seen them at Target in the Dollar section.
For younger children or children who may not be as responsible to handle a spray of some sort…these wipes are wonderful. They can clean the bathroom, kitchen and even dust their rooms with them.(I wouldn’t use them on real good wood though) You can also spray a rag yourself with a dust spray prior if you don’t want to purchase these. They may be a little extra expense, but it is not like you are using them full time for your cleaning.

The older kids can have a bigger carrier with more cleaning supplies.
Having the cleaning supplies ready and accessible can make it much easier and actually encourage them to clean.

For us: I suggest that you keep several cleaning items in each room you use them. If you keep your windex, toilet bowl cleaner and comet downstairs in the laundry room..and your upstairs bathroom needs a quick clean up…then it more than likely won’t happen as often as if the cleaning supplies were accessible.
I suggest keeping in each bathroom:
*mirror cleaner
*toilet bowl cleaner
*sink and shower cleaner
*rag or sponge
*paper towels

Make yourself a fun bucket! We can have fun cleaning too can’t we?

Kids Job Board – Make your own!

You do not have to spend a lot of money to have a chore board for your kids.

I have posted before how important I think that it is that kids help with chores.
It is not to make it easier for the mom…actually there are many times that it would be a lot easier if we just did it ourselves.
Our job as parents is to prepare our children for life on their own. Learning when they are small that they are part of a family and all the family pitches in to help get things accomplished is very important. It teaches them responsibility, accountability and life lessons.
I may be tough, but I don’t think kids have to be rewarded every time they help do what is expected of them. I do believe in allowances, but mainly so they have some experience in dealing with money. They need to learn to save and how to use it wisely.

This is the job board I use. It is simple, easy to change and not expensive.
You can also simply use your refrigerator to post the jobs rather than purchasing a magnetic board.

Decide what size magnetic board you need. This will depend on how many children you have.
Here is a picture of a smaller one that can be used for just one or two children.  (This is the one I did first and I let the kids make their own “name” label. They loved it (me… not so much, but they were so proud)

Get some magnetized business stickers. You can find these in a business store. They are meant to use for business cards, so you can turn them into magnets.

Peel back the sticker

Take an old business card and turn it so the blank side is showing. You can also cut
paper to fit if you don’t have business cards to use.
Just place them on carefully.

Decide on what jobs you want your kids to have.
They need to be age appropriate. If your child can not read yet, then use pictures along with the words. They will understand what it means.
I use little stars in the right hand corner to signify jobs that the younger children can do.

(hopefully your toothpaste doesn’t look like a worm sitting on a toothbrush like mine!! LOL)

Then just put your children’s names across the top. Place the proper job under their names.
My kids know that if they touch the job board or move things around without permission…they will be given some extra jobs! (so they don’t touch it.)
We change jobs weekly.
Just leave the kids names in the same place and rotate the jobs below.
Very simple!