Spring Cleaning!

It’s spring-cleaning time, and every surface in our house needs a good scrubbing.  It’s time to get the chore chart out and get everybody moving.  When my kids were younger, it seemed that as fast as I cleaned one area, they were following behind with a new mess.  It was, as my mother loved to say, like shoveling snow while it’s still snowing.  Although I still struggle with keeping up with the clutter and cleaning, we have come up with a few family rules and chores to keep me sane.

When my kids were little, we didn’t really assign many “chores”.  They helped us put the toys in the toy bucket, or they would help us set the table, but we weren’t sticklers for regular jobs around the house.  Later, we paid the price. I’ve since learned, that children of all ages can provide help around the house, and when they are young, they actually like chores!  Children often love to help their parents with “important” tasks like folding laundry, loading the dishwasher, or sweeping the floor.  The earlier you instill the idea that everyone has jobs to do to help the family, the easier it will be later to have them understand the value of work, and contribution to the family.

So now we have a standard rule: if you open it, close it; if you take it out, put it away.  We also have a weekly chore chart.  When we started it, we had a family meeting (after my husband and I had conferred), and we talked about some of the important jobs to keep the family going.  My husband, bless him, took the laundry.  I took bathroom cleaning. My children got some choice, but most duties were assigned: feeding the cats, taking the garbage out, replacing the bathroom towels and getting the mail from the curb.  We figured on an alternating schedule for feeding the cats.  If you were not on cat feeding it was your night for a shower—yes, showering is a chore!  It’s not a perfect system, and we still have to remind them to “check the chart”, but it takes away the arguments and we are starting to share the load.

Well, now that it’s spring, the chore chart needs revision--the clutter needs to go.  Room cleaning and other spring cleaning chores are going on the chore chart, because even though the cats aren’t starving, and we get the garbage to the curb, we don’t vacuum enough, and we all spend too much valuable time trying to locate missing items…“Mom, have you seen my…?”

So, don’t feel badly about asking your children to do chores, and don’t feel that monetary compensation is needed.  Our kids don’t get paid to do chores anymore; they understand its part of family life.  They also get VERY inspired when a trip to the mall or a new “must-have” game is on their list.  We just say, as soon as _____is done, we can go.

There are lots of resources out there to inspire you.  Some of my favorites are an article on age appropriate chores for children, a great book by Elizabeth Crary called Pick up Your Socks…and other skills growing children need! , and Neat Mom, Messie Kids: A Survival Guide, by Sandra Felton .

Happy Spring Cleaning!