How much do your kids do around the house?

lbnblbnb

I am really interested to see what you all do with your kids, and I like the gin idea! Cheers!
My children are too young to do much, but my daughter (nearly 6 years old) likes to help, and wants to take on responsiblity for a job (I was thinking of getting her to wipe and lay the table each night). The Guardian article has a wide range of views about this, but I suppose things that went through my mind are

• chores/jobs are good preparation for life (particularly boys, my OH is great round the house mainly because his mother always expected him to help out)
• children get huge satisfaction and self-esteem from doing a job that they know genuinely needed doing, and doing it well
• consumerism encourages us all to believe that we can just sit back and buy the right product/service and our lives will be great - the idea of making a genuine contribution and gaining satisfaction needs to be promoted, ie home cooking, creativity with what you have, sewing, etc
• chores/jobs can be enjoyable and have play value - Montessori encourages children to clean and help as part of their development
• I am not sure whether to link jobs to money. In the Tightwad Gazette Amy D gives quarters for jobs done by her kids, my brother (in the US) gives his daughter dimes for jobs she does around the house. In one way I think kids should contribute to the house as part of the family, not for money. On the other hand it could begin to teach them that money needs to be earnt.

Am I living in cloud cuckoo land? Will my ideas wither in the face of two teenagers in 12 years time???!!! I suppose my two are young enough for me to decide on the household line now and stick with it. What do you all think?

$sTaCeY$_2

I'm 15, I do alot of cleaning, I do the ironing, hoovering up and downstairs each day and dusting/polishing, clean some of the pets and feed them, clean my room and my mums and dads room, clean the bathroom and help in the kitchen alot.

My sisters room (aged 9) I try to clean but she trashes it as soon as it is clean :mad: so that room always has the door shut! I wish she would help clean up more she only cleans something ocasionally she cleaned the rabbits for me the other day so i was surprised!

organic_wanabe

I am so ashamed (or rather DS should be!:rolleyes:) when I read what some of you manage to get your children to do. DS is 15 and does not help around the house in any way whatsoever - sorry that's a slight exageration, he assists in making chocolate brownies because I now refuse to make them unless he helps. He tells me he's making the most of his youth and will have no problem cooking and cleaning when he needs to because he watches DH and I enough!!! If only it were that simple. He, personally, is squeaky clean having a shower in the morning and a bath in the evening. Often, he'll have another shower during the day if he had been playing one of his many sports or planning to see his GF. Thankfully, we're not water metered in Edinburgh! Needless to say he'd never think of washing a towel.

icecubequeen

My children are 3 & 4 and do the following:

Dress themselves
Tidy their room (with supervision sometimes!)
Make their beds
Put their clothes in the laundry basket
Will help me in kitchen with little things (baking, prepping food for dinner)
Clear their plates from the table after a meal
Tidy up after themselves, if they get toys out in the lounge etc
They will help if asked to do other things e.g when I was gardening the other day they helped clear away cuttings from the bushes and brushed the paths.

Think thats about it at mo

Ches

sounds like my house! I put toothpaste on their brushes at the beginning of the week to see how often they cleaned their teeth and it was still there this morning:eek: needless to say words were said on the subject!:rolleyes: told DS17 he wasnt leaving the house until he'd been in the shower(last one 4 days ago:rolleyes: )[/quote]

Exactly the same. I don't think this will change until they 'discover' girls. :eek: I think if I was mum and not grandma I would rather dirty kids for a while longer.

redmel1621

My two boys (4 & 6) don't do too much.....
1. always hang up coats and put shoes away
2. always take out bowls/plates/glasses to the kitchen
3. any toys that sneak downstairs go up by the end of day
4. clothes that come off go into laundry bin

They both wash (hands, face, teeth) and dress themselves

I don't have many rules just generally keep themselves and the house tidy and I won't be casing them out with the broom:rotfl:

My dad kicked me out the house just after I turned 15 so at that age i was running a flat with my BF(now DH)
Mel x

mandi

DebtphobicDeirdre wrote: »

My 15yr old DS has had a right old strop on this morning for being asked to tidy his room. His reasons are

1. Its HIS room.
2. Its ABNORMAL for teen boys to have tidy rooms.
3. ALL his friends have messy rooms.
4. I should give more notice as room tidying takes AGES.
5. Messy room has NEVER caused health problem.
6. Its the holidays, he is supposed to be RESTING.
7. He isn't allowed a TV in his room so WHY should he do anything for me!

Should I give up, should I leave home or should I take to drink?

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: are you my AE ..........so funny ... now where did i leave my kids..................

jcr16

my little boy is 2 and he put's toys away in their boxes and helps to empty the dishwasher. he picks things out of it and hand to me. if i give him a cloth he will pretend to dust. he know where his shoes go to go away.

as for my daughter she is 4 in oct and she ( if in right mood) can and willl do anything. she helps to make her bed if i ask , put's toys away , will help laiud table, hoover , polish/dust , open/close curtains , put thing in the dishwasher , help do some baking , help make her lunch and get bag ready for nursery in morning, helps to wash car , helps to cut the grass , water plants , feed the cats , change cats water , put shopping away, if have tesco delivery she helps to unpack it, helps to put laundry away. she can dress herself , but get's frustrated sometimes. my daughter loves to get involved and likes showing her younger brother how to do thing's. we try to make any job we do fun. and it surprising how much she does actually know.

Hapless_2

I am not sure whether to link jobs to money. In the Tightwad Gazette Amy D gives quarters for jobs done by her kids, my brother (in the US) gives his daughter dimes for jobs she does around the house. In one way I think kids should contribute to the house as part of the family, not for money. On the other hand it could begin to teach them that money needs to be earnt.

My kids get paid for their chores, but not for tidying their own rooms as that is something they are expected to do regardless (otherwise all their toys would get left out and broken).

Sometimes the eldest bankrupts me!

Fozz

My 2 DDs are 13 and very nearly 16, oldest lives in a daydream and doesn't notice mess, youngest moans about it but doesn't do much to clear it up! I tend to ask them to do specific things rather than having set jobs, ie if the front room looks very messy I'll get them to tidy it.
I did have an experiment in the summer hols, oldest did all washing up for a week and youngest clothes washing. My kitchen was a tip for a week, but the laundry basket was nearly empty!! My youngest was actually far better than me at sorting laundry into coloureds and whites, no chance of pink underpants for DH when she was in charge!
They will both get themselves food if I'm busy/out, and have an allowance but it's not linked to chores. My oldest has such a lot of GCSE coursework at the moment that I'd rather she put that first. I also only work during term time, and then 25 hours a week, so I feel I have time to do most of the work. As long as they help me out when I'm tired or busy that's enough at the moment!