I'm a firm believer in chores. I had them growing up, and I like to think that I am good at cleaning and whatnot because of it. I can clean up my house pretty quick when I know someone's coming over. When Grant and I were talking about chores, I knew I wanted it to be similar to how I did it growing up. I have 4 brothers so our chores were probably a bit different than those that had like 2 kids.
When I was growing up, each kid had a nightly kitchen chore; wash dishes, dry dishes, load/unload the dishwasher, and clean counters then sweep the floor. Logan is the youngest so he got to clear and wash the table. Every week, and I believe it was Sundays, whatever kitchen chore you had corresponded to a "house" chore. So like if you washed dishes, you cleaned the living room. Drying dishes equaled cleaning both bathrooms. Dishwasher equaled *I think* dusting...and if any of my brothers actually read this... could you tell me because I cant remember and it's going to bug me. Counters and floors equaled folding and putting away laundry. Now that I'm older, it seems like a good system!
With 3 kids, I'd like for our family chores to be something similar, but since Izzy is only 4, I figured I'd start small. So her chore is to bring her hamper down to the basement on laundry days. She also has to make her bed every day, pick up toys at the end of the day, and put away her clothes when I put them on her bed. Since Kensi is 3, she hasn't really had any chores yet. She helps Izzy pick up toys and also puts her dishes away after meals. Sounds easy peasy, right? Well, I apparently didn't anticipate how "hard" it would be to enforce it. The only one I seem to be consistent on is the putting the clothes downstairs. But I forget damn near every day to have them make their beds. Hell, I've even forgotten to get them to brush their teeth and hair in the morning after they get ready for the day. With so many other things on my mind, and even more recently, it just seems like those little things are slipping through the cracks. Half the time, I end up making their beds or picking up their toys at the end of the day.
I have such good intentions with the chores, but I seem to be failing a little bit at that. :) Tomorrow is laundry day and today I remembered to have the girls do their teeth and hair, and also make their beds. Maybe I can keep the momentum going and really get into the habit of reminding them until they (hopefully) just know to do it on their own. That part is probably a pipe dream, but at least maybe I can make it a habit of telling/reminding them so they know it's coming and aren't surprised when I tell them to. Once they get older and Grant and I start introducing more chores, they'll have already gotten used to doing some things at certain times and it won't be a fight. One can hope, right??
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