I bet that got your attention! O.k., this probably won't end complaining forever, but I am sharing a nice tidbit from my wealth of parenting knowledge, that has curbed complaints about chores around our house.
I'm sure I've mentioned before how important it is for children to have responsibilities around the house. This summer, I tried out a new way of meting out chores. I wrote our daily chores on craft sticks (emptying dishwasher, cleaning bathrooms, vacuuming stairs, and dust mopping the wood floors) and placed them in a cup. We have 5 kids old enough to do chores so I added one more craft stick with "Free Day"written on it. Each morning the children draw sticks for their chore for that particular day. This has worked out pretty well, except that as the summer has worn on, I'm hearing more complaining about which chore certain children drew. My solution for ending the complaining is: if I hear you complain about your chore, you get to do everyone's chore for the day. So far, I've only had to implement this policy twice. As much as they might dislike doing a certain chore, they certainly do not want to do all the chores!
Comments