How would you like help around the house? How about help with the laundry, vacuuming, dusting, and kitchen clean-up? Sound too good to be true? It doesn’t have to be. The key to getting help from your kids for all the housework is by making it fun. Here are some tips to help you do just that.

Tip #1

Start young. Your children need to learn at an early age that they are responsible for their stuff. They need to be taught to take pride in ownership by taking good care of their things.

Many parents make the mistake thinking that they are being "good" parents by doing everything for their children. This couldn’t be further from the truth. By giving your children chores to do and making them take responsibility for their possessions, you are teaching them responsibility.

Teach your children while they are very young how to make their bed, how to pick up their toys, how to put their dirty clothes in the laundry basket. Notice how I used the word "their" in each of those examples.

When you are teaching your children how to work around the house, you need to teach them that they are taking care of "their" things. They are not being "mommy’s little helpers." By teaching your children that they are "helping" you, they tend to take the viewpoint that they are doing you a favor. It is their job, their possessions, their responsibility. Teach them this early.

Tip #2

Give clearly defined instructions. Your children weren’t born knowing how to clean a bathroom, how to properly wipe the kitchen counter tops off, or how to load the dishwasher. Training is your key job. Break the job down into steps that the child can understand.

If they are really young, you might want to draw a sequence of pictures for them to follow. Let them help you do this as you explain how to do the job. This will make it fun for them.

Remember, it’s your job to train your children not only how to clean, but how to be responsible. This isn’t a temporary "fix" just to help make your job easier. You are building responsible, capable men and women.

Tip #3

Keep the job realistic. Don’t expect a 10-year-old to paint his bedroom. Only assign jobs that a child that age is capable of doing with success. If you praise a child enough, they will truly try hard to impress you. Keep the job realistic and age appropriate.

Tip #4

Avoid criticism. Nobody likes to be criticized. If your child hasn’t been successful completing a job, before you instruct the child, find a good point to compliment and then tell them what they need to improve on.

Never tell a child they are stupid, lazy, worthless, or any other destructive words.

Tip #5

Make a list of all the household chores that need to be done. Divide them up by age group. You know your children better than anyone else; what can your children do?

Next make a chore chart and display it somewhere in the kitchen where all the family members will be sure to see it regularly. Each week, let your children draw three chores from a hat or bowl. Those are their chores for the week.

Every time they complete a chore, they get to mark the chore as complete by putting a large check mark by it on the chart. Each child will have their own color they use when they mark off their completed chores.

This is the fun part for little kids. They love to see their color of check marks on the chore chart. At the end of the week, have a reward time for all the completed chores.

With older children, give each chore a point and add up their points at the end of the week. Decide ahead of time what the rewards are and how many points they need to have for each reward.

Tip #6

Praise, praise, praise. Did I say praise? Yes. Children thrive on praise – real praise, not false praise when they really didn’t do anything. Children are smart little critters. They know the difference between deserved and undeserved praise.

Give them a job to do and praise like crazy when they are successful. If they aren’t successful, you need to take a step back and figure out why.

Did you not give clear instructions? Did you give the child a job that was unrealistic? Did the child just not try to do the job?

Decide what the problem was and fix it.

As you can see, there are many factors that contribute to getting your child to do work around the house. Be sure and teach your child to take care of their things from the beginning and then use the chore chart for "extra" work that helps you get your work done. Above all, make it a fun and positive experience for all.

Jason Ladock

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