Clean Time for Screen Time!

Cleaning and organizing have never been strengths of mine, but I’ve learned and grown in this area over the past twelve years as a wife and mom. Now, as our boys get older, we’re giving them more and more responsibilities around the house. We believe cleaning is a part of being in a family and everyone needs to pitch in. Our older two boys - 9 and 7 - have a weekly rotating chore they are in charge of, either laundry or dishes. This has helped them learn how to be involved in daily responsibilities.

Fridays are our major house cleaning days. This involves bathrooms, dusting, vacuuming, and so on. We expect our boys to participate in appropriate chores on Fridays and we like to reward them when they put forth extra effort with a good attitude. Many families choose to pay their children for bigger chores or base an allowance on getting chores done, but with our boys we’ve found a different currency that motivates them: screen time!

This deal is only good for Fridays, so our kids aren’t getting copious amounts of screen time all week, but this is how it works:

My husband and I make a list of all the chores that need to be done that day. Then we assign a “value” to each chore. Disinfecting all of the door handles in the house might earn you five minutes. Cleaning all of the toilets, inside and out, would earn you 30 minutes. You get the idea!

Once a child has completed a chore on the list, a parent will check to make sure it was well done, and then the child can right his name next to that chore on the list. When all the chores are done, the child’s total screen time is added up and they can use that screen time any time over the weekend!

In our house, screen time means time playing on a device such as a 3DS or iPad. This system could be tailored to fit the interests of your own kids, but we’ve seen great results from it! And it doesn’t cost us any extra money!

What cleaning motivation has worked the best with your kids?