Kids and chores

If you're a parent, what's your policy on your kids having chores? Are there regular things that they must do? I usually get my daughter on the weekends. Her school is closer to her mothers house, so during the school year, she primarily lives with her. During the summer, she's either with me full time, or custody is split down the middle. That being said, when she's here over the weekend, admittedly I don't give her a lot of chores to do, because she's only here for two days and I'm trying to keep the atmosphere light. The summer is another story. However, I still don't have a real set list of chores then. I'll just randomly tell her to clean up, wash the dishes, or take out the trash whenever any of those things need being done. How do you handle this? If you're not a parent, did you have a lot of chores as a child?

My son has a few set things. His are emptying the dishwasher and taking the garbage cans out to the street. Other than that, he keeps his room up and knows that on Friday evenings, we do our Friday chores to get things spotless for the weekend.

Now, if you asked him this question, he would tell you I treat him like a maid! He thinks his workload is much heavier than it is.

RedBedroom wrote:My son has a few set things. His are emptying the dishwasher and taking the garbage cans out to the street. Other than that, he keeps his room up and knows that on Friday evenings, we do our Friday chores to get things spotless for the weekend.

Now, if you asked him this question, he would tell you I treat him like a maid! He thinks his workload is much heavier than it is.

My ten year old is the same way. All she has to do is vacuum primarily and occasionally help dry and put up dishes. If she were to keep things tidy she wouldn't need to make a production out of cleaning, but when she's told to do something she'll act like she was sold to a sweatshop. My six year old is the opposite, she likes to help out because we don't really ask her to much. If she's anything like her sister, that will all change in another year or so I'm betting.

she'll act like she was sold to a sweatshop

That made me laugh so hard! I know that oh so well.

This summer when he spent a week with my dad, he actually told my dad that he was enjoying having a vacation from ALL his chores at home. My dad actually suggested to me I was over working him!

RedBedroom wrote:... My dad actually suggested to me I was over working him!

Grampa - just doin' his job.

Yeah, Shale it was easily forgiven!

Let's see, when I was 10 I washed the dishes, washed, dried and folded the laundry, did all the dusting, the vacuuming, helped with all the gardening: the planting, the watering, the weeding, the hoeing, the picking, mowed the lawn, helped wash and wax the car, and cleaned half of the bathroom and my brother did the other half, also did the dishes, mowed the lawn and took out the trash.

When I was a child, I rarely had any chores, my Mom just let me be a kid and have fun playing outside instead of burdening me with work after a 7-hour school day. I don't see any problem with this approach - I'm an adult now and learned how to keep up my house and such. You learn it eventually because you have to.

It depends on the ages of the children. As teenagers I expected the kids to do dishes, on the weekends I expected them to help with housework. They thought they were over worked. As teens they discovered working outside the home for pay. Then they were more than willing to work their bottoms off . The 2 girls were 14 and 15 when they thought they were going to sit on the couch all summer with their boyfriends. I was against that, so I told them to get out and find jobs. I actually meant the boys, however they all went job hunting and the girls found the jobs and the boys sat around on someone elses couch all summer. I still expected some work from them, after all when they had to work after dark I was the one who would walk a mile down hill, and back up hill to see them home safely. Our son did the so called boy jobs, taking out the trash keeping his room clean, (cleaner than the girls did theirs) mowing the lawn. The only reason he didn't do dishes was he didn't hit 5 foot until he was 15, I remembered the damn dish water running up my arms and it was a really nasty feeling when I was a kid. By the time he hit 5 foot I had a mechanical dishwasher. By then the human dishwashers had left home. Our son then proceeded to grow 13 inches in one year (complete with stretch marks on his back and legs) and eventually topped out at 6'4".

My kids have things that they have to do. They each have a magic erase board in their room and every day I write down the things I want them to do after school on it. They have to get them all checked off before they do the things that THEY want to do. It's things like: Put your shoes in your shoe box, pick up your toys, brush your teeth, sweep your floor...And whatever I happen to need or want them to do that day. Writing it down where they can check it off saves me from having to nag them.

Yeah, I had chores when I was kid. I had to vaccum, clean the bathroom, wash the dishes, clean my room, take out the trash, etc. My children will have chores too.

Taking out the trash is always their job....no question about it. They gotta help bring in the groceries and put the up. Their bedrooms are their responsibility and at least once a week I'd like to be able to see the floor. My daughter is decent about keeping her room clean enough....but my son is a slob. They could wash the dishes more. Now they're old enough to wash their own clothes, but they rarely do.