I sent them down to the Colonies to clean up toxic waste caused by the Second Civil War.

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

The biggest thing growing up was the rule at our house - whoever cooks dinner does not have to do the dishes. We didn't have a dishwasher for a long time and I hated doing dishes, so I learned to cook (so did my brother). Now, we are both excellent cooks.

I also had to feed my horses every day, no matter the weather.

In high school, my mom said she'd pay me what she paid the cleaning lady (who came once a week). I did it once and said, "No thanks".

My nephew and his wife have a "job list" for 5 yo Marshall to choose from when he wants to "make some money". If he sees some toy he wants, they tell him he has to earn money to buy it. I asked him what he does when he gets too many toys ("Give some to kids who don't have very many.") He does get a token allowance for putting his clothes in the laundry basket and keeping his room picked up.

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

Empty garbge cans, clean up after pets, empty dishwasher. Seems so simple but getting them to do it without asking 10 times is near impossible.

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"The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."

^ This

Son, 9: He cleans one full bathroom weekly and the cat's litter box every other day, on top of picking up after himself around the rest of the house and keeping his room clean. He's an old soul -- gets the vacuum out on his own to clean his room and makes his bed faithfully, regularly organizing his room as well. He's more like me.

Daughter, 5.5: She empties all of the small waste buckets weekly (laundry, bathroom, bedrooms), cleans our half bathroom weekly, empties the dishwasher about once a week. She also needs to keep her room clean and pick up her stuff around the house, but she is a damn tornado of a human, so she requires constant reminders for all of this. She's like her mom, who is a hurricane of messes.

They can earn a little extra cash by doing extra "jobs," like picking up sticks in the yard, mopping a floor, etc. Our mantra around here is we're all part of a family team, so when we all pitch in and help it means mom and dad have more time to do other stuff with them instead of being burned out. They're really good kids anyway, but the discipline of pitching in helps keep them that way.

My 11-yr old makes her bed/keeps room clean each day, unloads the dishwasher when she gets home from school, does her own laundry and dusts on weekends.

When I was a kid we had assigned chores in addition to keeping our rooms clean, and regardless of where you had to be or if we wanted to go out and play in the neighborhood, my folks made sure that we had everything done first before we could go. My wife grew up in a military household so she had the same thing.

I had a roommate in college whose parents literally did everything for him growing up, even while he was still in college where his mom picked his laundry and returned it cleaned and folded along with bags of groceries every weekend.

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"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler

My 14 year old son made peanut butter cookies last night.

My 16 year old son helped me rebuild a fence for the past three days.

Thank you for that. That's real work, not emptying the trash in the bathroom, etc. I'm sorry, I was worked a lot as a child.

Clean the chimney

My three year old puts her laundry away and sets the table for dinner.

Next up we will teach her to stock the toilet paper under the sink in the bathrooms.

now that he's older (16) he's going to get one DIY job per weekend.

Last weekend it was sourcing and putting on a lip for the shower door to stop leaking (sort of worked! better now)

this weekend it will be overseeing somebody to come and clean our windows (needs specialist equipment as we're urban)

they're pretty much one-and-done, forces him to think out of his box, and there's solid gratification in making something better. Not to mention it saves the parents the work.

My 3 kids do literally nothing. They will take a last mouthful, put down their fork and walk away from their plate without a backward glance.

What's the trick to getting them working? Do i need to beat them more?

Help with general chores around the house. Sort and do their own laundry as soon as they could reach the dials.

I did the same! As soon as I was tall enough my mother taught me to turn the dial to 8 o’clock and pull. Then she told me to do that every day when I get home school.

we tied it to allowance. I know many families where chores are chores period but we found incentivising helped make it a habit. Once it's a habit you're good.

I would tell them that you ask to be excused and put your plate in the dishwasher, or the next meal isn’t cooked for them. Follow through. Ignore the complaining. Don’t engage in their back talk. I bet it will take once or twice with a kid not eating and it will never happen again. It will be about 4 days of misery of them complaining until they see you are serious. Then, 10 years from now they will laugh about it at Christmas when telling stories.

I also assign more chores if my kids give me grief about 1 chore and/or I unplug all the electronics.

My 3 kids do literally nothing. They will take a last mouthful, put down their fork and walk away from their plate without a backward glance.

What's the trick to getting them working? Do i need to beat them more?[/quote]

I would tell them that you ask to be excused and put your plate in the dishwasher, or the next meal isn’t cooked for them. Follow through. Ignore the complaining. Don’t engage in their back talk. I bet it will take once or twice with a kid not eating and it will never happen again. It will be about 4 days of misery of them complaining until they see you are serious. Then, 10 years from now they will laugh about it at Christmas when telling stories.[/quote]
This.

We had to take our plates when we left the table for as long as I can remember. It started when I was about 4. It was so ingrained in me that even when I'd go to a friends house for dinner I'd take my plate off the table and put it on the kitchen counter. On friend got mad at me because after I did that her parents started making her do it.

I also cleaned the bathrooms or vacuumed once a week once I was about 9 and emptied the trash cans, set the table or cleaned up after dinner (my brother and I switched off each week) and started mowing the yard when I was 11 or 12.

My children are supposed to clean their room, clean the bathroom they most frequently use and generally help out around the house as needed - could be emptying the dishwasher, taking trash out, vacuuming, laundry.

My husband would rather do the chores himself and not ask the children to help with anything because they don't put a lot of effort into it or they exert more energy bickering with one another to the point that it is more irritating to listen to them then to just do it himself.

I believe that is their secret plan to try to get out doing stuff so I will just assign them more chores for all the time they bicker or make them come back and learn how to do the chore correctly over and over again. For instance vacuuming... the children say they are done but the same dirt is still on the floor. Umm, you have to actually make the floor clean with the vacuum, not just push it around for 1 min then say you did it. My son (age 13) has caught on and will help without complaining unless his sister (age 11) starts in on him. Sister has ADHD and ODD and lets just say chores seem to be excessively difficult for her.

Good thread as we are trying to get our kids to do more (ages 5 and 2).

Besides cleaning up toys, we got the 5 year old putting some dishes away, got her to start shaving potatoes and carrots, and fold some laundry. The two year old is pretty much putting away toys. Any other ideas they can do??

I think the key is to acknowledging that they are going to do the quality of work a 5 year old or 2 year old can do and know it will take them much longer than you or not as good as you. Correct them them when they do it wrong or hasty but don't yell at them.

Our boy is ten going on eleven. Currently he is regularly required to handle the trash, feed and water the dog, clean cat boxes, help dry dishes after dinner, clean up his room and play room, help vacuum and clean up the house when the house cleaner is on vacation.. He doesn't have to load the dishwasher, because neither he, nor his mother do it correctly. These jobs are tied directly to a small allowance and access to Fortnite.

Tried to add mowing to his list, but he’s just not quite big enough yet, and he usually voluntarily helps me wash and clean up the boats when we go to the lake. Less frequently he gets to sweep the garage, help pull weeds, repair fences or just generally help with any household projects that he is capable even if that means just holding the flashlight. What I don’t like is him sitting around watching his mother or I work.

For us, recognizing the ages of our kids and assigning age-appropriate chores has been a big thing. But we also won't let it be an excuse for them doing poor quality work that they can do for their age. One of my 5.5 year old daughter's jobs is to clean our downstairs half bathroom weekly, but she often tries to get away without cleaning the base of the toilet or behind the sink faucet, so I call her out on it and take away privileges until she completes the job satisfactorily (no playing outside with friends, no treats, no screen time). She doesn't get punished for it, but taking away privileges is our message that we don't extend extra unnecessary things to those who don't participate in our family "team." When the job is complete and I do my inspection, I always praise her profusely for the nice work, and she runs off to tell her neighbor friends how she did a good job cleaning (and their parents look at use like "how the hell do you get your kids to clean?").

As our kids have grown we've extended more difficult chores. Hopefully within the year I'll be able to get the boy (9) to cook a meal once a week. He's still too small to operate the lawn mower, but that'll come. Both kids have their regular chores and both participate in helping with one-off projects, like yard clean up, garage clean out, cleaning up after we've had guests, etc.

Sounds like our are about the same as most.

8 y/o manages food and water for the dogs and cleans up dog poop in backyard (get a brother to help)

11 y/o's and 13 y/o load and unload dishwasher, take garbage out, and mow the lawn.

All of them clean their rooms, including play rooms. They put their clothes up and away and help out occasionally moving clothes into clothes washer and dryer.

I remember the first few times we had my daughter put away the silverware from the dishwasher. The amount of tears that came down her face was ridiculous. I think it took her 30 minutes with all of the whining, crying and sloppy job being redone.

At this point she may still complain or say "I don't want to do that now", but she will get it done in about 2-3 minutes and mostly correct. Also her younger sister does a better job at putting away toys.

My 3 year old feeds and lets the the dog out every morning, wakes up his little sister and "helps" me make coffee. But those aren't really "chores" anymore, he gets mad at me if I do them without him.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

I grew up on a very big farm in the Midwest.

During the school year:

Up at 5:30, feed the cattle by 6, back in the house by 7. Eat breakfast and on the bus by 7:30.

Home about 3. Do homework, out to feed the cattle at 6. Back in the house at 7. Eat supper (not dinner, that's at noon), in bed by 8:30

On Saturday's we cut the grass on the 3 houses on the farm - took about 6 hours, as well as fed the cattle at each end of the day.

On Sunday's the "men" would go in town and drink coffee until about 10, then go home and do odds and ends, but for the most part I was only involved if I wanted to be, or I was absolutely needed

During planting and harvesting seasons, and most of the summer, depending on our age, we were out in the fields for about 14 hours a day, give or take, either driving a tractor, hauling wagons, or simply as a go-fer. There was also fence mending, barns to clean, hay and straw to bale, and all the other "once in a while" stuff that had to be done. Plus the farmers all shared their kids with each other, so I would not just bale our farm, but 3 other farms as well, and their kids helped us.

All of my friends had the same routine. We had no idea a world existed outside of ours. I figured it out when I got a partial free ride to college and no one in my family understood why I was even considering it. That made me realize I could either do this the rest of my life or walk away completely - there wouldn't be an in between.

I joined the Navy. I got married to a "city girl" as my mother called her. I went to college and have a Master's degree. I went home off and on over the years, and eventually inherited the farm with my brother and sister, but I never went back to that life and I kept my family mostly isolated from it as well.

Once in a while I go home for an event or a problem, and I am very much an outsider, both in the way I act and dress, and my attitude towards things. Some of it I laugh off and some of it give them the full Long Island go fuck yourself attitude.

BTW, the farm is now mostly automated. The system feeds the cattle on a schedule. We no longer bale much, its all in big rolls that sit in the fields. Planting and harvesting haven't changed much, but the equipment is big and more efficient and can be run with fewer people and it takes much less time.

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"...the street finds its own uses for things"