Children + Chores

AT HOME

In this episode of At Home, Jen Dees leads the discussion on children and chores.
Jen is very excited about this topic, and was a little surprised that some of us saw it as more of a “necessary” topic than a “fun” one. And I think she made it her goal to get us all to see how much fun chores can be. Our Jen Dees loves a challenge!
Jen offers some great research to prove her point that chores are really wonderful things for kids to do. And as the episode progresses, you’ll see that some of the At Home ladies are total rock stars at this. While others of us are still… growing.
Wherever you find yourself on that spectrum, we’re hoping this episode will help you find inspiration and plenty to think about as we discuss everything from what chores our kids actually do, giving allowance, how to get kids started with chores, handling bad attitudes, and so much more.
And for this episode we’d love to start something new: sharing your fabulous chore ideas with our At Home audience. We want to see your kids in action, your chore charts, and the other fabulous things happening in your homes as you teach your children the value of chores. Simply tag your photos with #athomechores and lets be flooded with inspiration from one another!

Show Notes:

Jen Dees
Why Children Need Chores
Wall Street Journal
Jennifer Breheny Wallace
March 13, 2015

Why Don’t Kids Do Chores Anymore?
Wall Street Journal
Jeff Opdyke
June 19, 2005

Kristin Rogers
Article – Benefit of Chores

Brianne Buskey
I mentioned during this episode that I would list all of the chores my girls (ages 8 and 11) help with around the house. Some of these they do daily, some of them are more like once a week and other they do once a month of so. I like having them all written down so I don’t have to think up something for them to do on the fly. The list looks long and daunting but it’s actually pretty simple when you’re using jobs they’re already familiar with around the house. We have a small box with 2 mason jars in it (one for each kid). I simply write each chore onto a large popsicle stick and store them in the box. Each night (or that morning) I pick a few chores for each kid and put them into their jar for the next day.

*Feed animals (each girl is responsible for 1 of our animals)
Clean Sunny’s (guinea pig) cage
Make bed
Clean under bed
Fold and put away laundry
Organize clothes drawers (this doesn’t get done often but when they’re super messy I like having the stick ready for them to tackle this chore)
Take sheets off your bed (I try and have them do this every Monday so I get their sheets washed regularly)
Clean bathroom (my oldest does the full bathroom, the younger does the 1/2 bathroom)
Clean bathroom floors
*Wipe off bathroom sink (this is a daily chore since they’re messy with the toothpaste)
Take out bathroom trash and replace bag
Dust living room and office
*Load dishwasher
*Put away dishes
*Wipe down kitchen table
Mop ____ (whatever is needed)
Tidy ____ (office, living room, kitchen, bedroom…)
Sweep floors
Vacuum ____ (whatever is needed)
Clean back door window
Water garden (plants on our patio)
Water George (Ruby’s banana tree)
Wipe down door frames
Clean off chalkboards

These next 2 are in our chore box but really fall under habits we’re trying to instill:
Make dinner
*Practice instruments

*Daily Chores