Give them a Job!

Summer seems to be ALL about the kids having (way too much) FUN! Right? Wrong! Not always, that is.....I think it is so important to actually teach kids responsibility in the summer time when they are home all day, using up things, making bigger messes etc. I actually think this is something that should be taught year-round....but a good place to start is the summer time! There is an important lesson to be learned for kids that the parents (ie. especially the stay-at-home mom) is not their servant. Yes, cleaning and cooking etc. are part of my job description, but I think that part of the job description of ANY member of the family, is to help to learn to take responsibility for things, people, themselves etc.



We do LOTS of cleaning games in our home. I do not want to ever be accused of being a slave-driver with my kids. I think that that only leads to resentment.....so a way to teach them responsibility is to make cleaning and chores FUN! Believe me....you have to change up the routine ALL the time to keep kids interested in helping. We have lots of different ways that we do that in our family and I am going to show you just one today.....and talk about a few other ideas for getting kids involved. Believe me, even the smallest in your family can learn to help out. I think that WITHOUT teaching kids responsibility we are shirking a big responsibility ourselves as parents!

One thing that we do is a job jar. (I am really into jars, ie. the boredom buster jar, as you can tell....but the reason is that the kids respond so very well to it!). I listed out a bunch of different age-appropriate jobs and stuck them all in a jar. This is no easy task with a 9, 4, and 2 year old in the house.....some jobs are NOT appropriate for all ages but then you can just let them choose again, or they can keep that job and do it with assistance from mom. It is no big deal.

Remember a couple of things:

1. Your kids will WANT to help if you make it fun

2. Let go of the image that your house has to be perfect (haha). Stop yourself from going back over the streaked bathroom mirrors, or re-vacuuming the room because it is not as perfect as you would do. It is not about that. It is more about allowing your kids to get involved and take some ownership over your home.

3. Praise praise praise praise praise praise praise (x 1000). When your kids are doing something to help out, you will not BELIEVE the affect that praise has on them!

4. Change up the routine. Even if you do something fun like the job jar, if you do it every single day it will get boring for you (and the kiddos and you certainly do not want that!

Here's some pics of the kiddos today with their chosen jobs. El is changing and washing her sheets while Tyler (above) is vacuuming. (The vacuuming for my little 35 pound boy is something I have to overlook. It is NOT about the job well done, it is about the effort....and that little thing tried REALLY hard!)

Some other ideas that we routinely do to make cleaning fun:

1. The song game. Each kid gets to choose a CD, song and room to clean. During that song, all the members of the family clean that chosen room (more often than not it will be the chooser's own room but that is OK!). When the song is finished the next person gets to choose a CD, song and room. Lots gets done in a pretty short amount of time!

2. The time-limit game: You set a time limit (ie. 15 minutes) to clean 1 particular room with all the members of the family. When that time limit is done you set the timer again (ie. 10 minutes) to do something fun (ie. chalk on the sidewalk, play a short game, dance to wild and crazy music etc.).

3. Put away 3 game:  Each person in the family puts away 3 things from every single room (this will take about 20 or so minutes depending on the size of your house). After the whole house is done once you set the timer (ie. 20 more minutes) to do something fun.....without doing little breaks, kids get TIRED. I go through this game with the kids about 2 times all the way through.

4. Chore Chart:  Each child can have a chore chart that they are responsible for every single day. They can be easy things like "make your bed" and "brush your teeth." This instills responsibility. You can offer rewards such as allowance or just make this part of the daily routine!

5. The "I am so desperate to find something that I am offering to bribe you" game:  So, this is a little "tongue in cheek" but not as much as you think. I have done this a few times when we have lost my precious son's glasses (that cost upwards of $200), my keys, or my phone. When I offer the winner a small prize, you will be amazed at how much gets cleaned and how quickly lost items get found :) This is a desperate move, but hey, sometimes it is needed :)

Just some super-fun ideas. You can create so many fun ways to clean if you want to. What are some of YOUR favorite ways to clean with your kids?

...and just because precious Trenton gets left out of everything, let's just do a pic of him and the $200 glasses :)

Oops, they are missing. Let's bribe the olders to find them.

$5 is an awfully small price to pay to find these things :) Just keepin' it real, folks :)