Trouble getting kids to do chores? Solution...

My wife and I are gone for about 10 hours a day, working to pay the bills and pay for a decent life.

We have a good friend who is young, kind of like a daughter to us, but doesn't always do her assigned chores completely. (She is a pretty good worker though).

We also have a son (my stepson, her son) who is more on the lazy side.

But, I saw this, and it made me smile, and may be the most ingenious solution I've ever seen.

Parenting: You're doing it right.

This is dead on! My daughter would think the world ended without access to the internet, lol.

I'm a new parent to a 17 y/o son. (long story) and he is incredibly lazy and slobish. However, his new girlfriend isn't. I had the "ah ha!" moment when I asked him to fold up his stuff and clean his mess and she did it for him, after being out of the hospital with fresh stitches even. Talk about raising the bar. Muuhhaaahaha, I know just what to do now.

reply to post by Gazrok


Interesting concept and clever.

We pay by the chore you want $10 ok well taking out the garbage is a .50, cleaning your room is $1.00. cleaning the bathroom $1.50, walking the dog $2.00 Ten bucks? Hmm that may take you awhile better get to work...

Originally posted by abeverage
reply to post by Gazrok

 

Interesting concept and clever.

We pay by the chore you want $10 ok well taking out the garbage is a .50, cleaning your room is $1.00. cleaning the bathroom $1.50, walking the dog $2.00 Ten bucks? Hmm that may take you awhile better get to work...

edit on 10-5-2013 by abeverage because: (no reason given)

My parents did this, too. I learned a LOT about the value of money.

Good for you!

I like it....But I must say I'm prety lucky, my kids pick up after themselves most ofv the time so what ever needs to be done is easy and fast. I get the pronciple of having the kids do chores and I agree with it to a certain extent but after all even if I say that I've been at work all day and that I am tired, they are also, they have been away from home and at school all day, learning and carving new brain paths...It's not realy different from us being at work. So, in our house, when chores are to be done, we do them all together as a team. The reward is more quality time together and we can enjoy each other's company or get to do what we want to do faster. Kids want to see their friends nad go to the movies...Well...If we team up and get the stuff done as fast as possible, they get to go see the movie with their friends faster....

Newer twist to an old concept. My dad used to flip the circuit breakers so I had no TV, Atari or music until I cut the grass and did other daily/weekly chores.

Originally posted by smyleegrl

Originally posted by abeverage
reply to post by Gazrok

 

Interesting concept and clever.

We pay by the chore you want $10 ok well taking out the garbage is a .50, cleaning your room is $1.00. cleaning the bathroom $1.50, walking the dog $2.00 Ten bucks? Hmm that may take you awhile better get to work...

edit on 10-5-2013 by abeverage because: (no reason given)

My parents did this, too. I learned a LOT about the value of money.

Good for you!

An allowance does nothing but teach kids that money comes from Mom or Dad or whomever. Not that it must be earned. I was not payed an allowance unless my chores were complete.

We have thought about hourly wage but typically most jobs around the house don't take that long so we quantify their worth with a monetary amount. Give the job a value and you will be payed by the job. It creates a work ethic too as if the job is done and done right you get paid.

Don't do the job you don't get paid unlike a lot of salaried workers LOL

I exaggerated (they are actually lower lol) the amounts but it is the concept I use.

reply to post by Gazrok


If thelittleweldsman's rules were written down,

The first from me, the other from theweldslady,

they would look like this...



Tfw.

I clicked on the thread while thinking, "Hmm, this could possibly be a way of motivating myself..." Haha!
I guess I really am just stuck with the 'give yourself a reward when you're done with everything' trick.

The OP's method would have worked on me really well when I was younger. It's ongoing and reward-based instead of punishment-based. When I was a gaming preteen, getting my TV taken away without warning only remedied my cluttered room for a short time.

I have a neice and nephew that stay with me occasionally on weekends. They absolutely can't stand for someone to tickle their feet, it's like torture for them. So when they get in trouble or don't want to do what I tell them, I will tickle their feet with no mercy. Now just the threat of tickling their feet gets them up and doing what ever I tell them. Spankings are not needed.

Don't think this will work for teenagers though, but taking away electronics should do the trick.

Pladuim

reply to post by Gazrok


I am glad to know from this posting, that parents are using positive rewards system to motivate their children, and not using coercion. The children will develop a positive outlook on working and not expect others to provide for them, and thus do well in the work world. I assume the same parents use a positive reward system for school attendance and achievement.
Also, if the schools have a positive reward system for attendance and achievement and improvement, both systems would combine to motivate students to a higher level of attendance and achievement..

reply to post by EllaMarina

I clicked on the thread while thinking, "Hmm, this could possibly be a way of motivating myself..." Haha!
I guess I really am just stuck with the 'give yourself a reward when you're done with everything' trick.

Don't we even do this for ourselves as adults?

We call it the "weekend". The reward for slaving at work all week.