Making Progress!
It’s been kind of crazy here for the last few weeks, but I am SO happy to find that we are making progress. A large part of that progress is due to three little lists I created for my sons at the beginning of the month.
The first list is a daily chore list. It’s a simple chart with a column for each day of the week plus a totals column. Down the left side are listed various jobs that should be done each day. These jobs can be checked off if completed, marked “OK” if they were not completed for a good reason (like “Mom’s alarm didn’t go off and we had only ten minutes to get ready to leave, so we hadn’t time to make the bed), or left blank if incomplete because the kid just didn’t choose to do it. On Thursdays, there is an additional job of taking out the trash, on Fridays of putting away the trash bins, and on Saturday of cleaning the bedroom. Each child is given a $1 base salary, from which one cent is deducted for each “unexcused incomplete” on the daily list.
The second list is the weekly room-cleaning checklist. The kids asked for this one, as they found cleaning their rooms (disaster areas!) overwhelming. So the list starts with the big, obvious stuff, like “make bed,” “hang up towels,” “put away shoes,” and “put dirty clothes in laundry room.” These instructions are followed by a list of things to put away: books, Legos, train track, cars, and so on. Finally are the dusting and vacuuming of the room. Once this checklist has been completed, the room cleaning chore can be marked off of their list of daily jobs.
The third list is a set of jobs for which I will pay them money. Hard, messy jobs like weeding a flowerbed or scrubbing the tub earn more money: 50 cents or a quarter. Easy jobs like unloading the dryer or emptying the dishwasher earn less: five or ten cents. Some jobs are restricted, like vacuuming the living room carpet (twice a week). So there are lots of chances for the kids to earn extra pocket money.
What I like about this system is that it’s easy and it’s objective. I’ve shown them how to do the jobs and told them what constitutes “acceptable” and worthy of pay. They do the job as instructed, and there’s a reward. Payday is Sunday evening, right before bed. I don’t have to nag or fuss — the list is there, go do your jobs.
And many of the jobs are helping us have a nicer looking home. Each of the kids is responsible for one bathroom, and their daily chores include swishing the toilet bowl with the brush and wiping the sink and toilet tank with a cleaning wipe. (I like the Method products — they smell nice and they don’t have scary stuff like chlorine bleach in them.) So the bathrooms always look clean. And with the kids vacuuming the floors and carpets to earn extra money, the floors are staying clean.
I did have to relax my standards a little. I don’t scrub the kitchen floor now; the children mop it with the Swiffer WetJet. Instead of vacuuming with my heavy-duty, beater-brush vacuum cleaner (which weighs about 25 pounds), the kids use a Shark carpet and floor sweeper, which doesn’t deep-clean, but which the kids can handle. It keeps the surface looking nice, and I can run the big vacuum once or twice a month instead of once a week now.
Yes, we are finally making progress. With the kids keeping up the small, routine chores, I am free to declutter and keep up the bigger, non-kid-friendly chores. It’s working!