How to Keep on Track with Your Kids’ Chores

When my son complains that he has to vacuum, dust, or help clean the bathroom, I smile. Not because I like to hear him complain, but because he has no idea that I am actually asking very little of him.

You see, I grew up on a farm. Chores were above and beyond anything he could imagine. Feeding cows, scrubbing barn walls, bucking hay off the pick-up. Fixing fences, milking cows, carrying grain buckets. Every day after school, and most of the day during summer breaks, my siblings and I were completing a long list of chores. Our whole lives were chores, at least the first part of the day. When chores were done, then we could play—and there were lots of fun things to do on the farm.

Now I live in a neighborhood, and my son has it pretty good. Whenever I have a chance, I tell him so. Still, even though vacuuming, dusting and cleaning the bathroom are pretty easy compared to my past farm life, it’s important to give our children what chores we can. It’s important to teach them how to work and be responsible. It helps them learn to take care of themselves, appreciate what they have, and it instills a sense of confidence and accomplishment—no matter whether the chores are to feed cows or to keep the house clean.

So as soon as my kids are a few years old, they are helping wipe the table or sweep in the kitchen. Then they learn to help wipe the counters in the bathroom and pick up toys. When they are a little bigger they pitch in with scrubbing the bathtub and vacuuming and dusting.

Thankfully, my boys don’t seem to mind the outside chores like raking leaves or shoveling snow.

Aside from building character in your children, chores are very valuable for the whole family. As the mom, I have a lot of things to do, and by the end of the day I am tired. If I still have a long list of things to do, then typically we don’t get to do anything fun as a family because I’m too overwhelmed or I just don’t feel like doing anything else. But when everyone pitches in a little bit, it takes the weight off of me, and then we can spend more quality time together. When we all pitch in, we all take pride in the house and the family as a whole. We work first, and then we can play.

I guess that is what it’s really all about. So if we can show our kids how to do chores, and teach them why, they will understand what a valuable thing they are doing for everyone around them. What I like to do is make a list of chores for each child so they know what is expected of them and I don’t have to keep reminding them.

To keep on track with your kids’ chores, follow these steps:

1. Visit www.rememberstuff.me/todo

2. Click “Create a New List.”

3. You’ll see a list of options – choose “Kid’s Chores List.”

4. If you have already entered your children’s names on your Remember Stuff profile at some point, you’ll see their names under a drop down menu under “Which Child.” If you haven’t done so, go ahead and add your children now.

5. Once you have a child selected, you can then select the frequency of the chores you will be adding to the list. So choose between daily, weekly, monthly or yearly. Click continue.

6. Now add the chores! For daily you might add homework, put away clean dishes, and pick up bedroom.

For weekly you could include clean bathroom, take out the trash, and vacuum bedroom.

For monthly perhaps clean out the car, make dinner, or sweep porch could be on the list.

Yearly some ideas could be deep cleaning items like clearing cobwebs from outside the house, washing windows, or trimming hedges.

7. Now you can “Save & Add” or choose “I’m Done.” As chores are completed you can keep them on the list or click X to delete them.

Don’t stop there! Add chores for your other kids, or even yourself.

To add one for yourself, go to www.rememberstuff.me/todo and click on My Chores Lists. Get it the lists all typed out, and it’ll keep everyone organized and ready to help contribute to running the household. In the end, you’ll all be learning to work hard while having time to play later.