In our house, if you caused the mess, it's your responsibility to clean up or fix. If it's something additional that you're doing to contribute to the household or help someone else, it's your "job." (It's the word they use at daycare, so it's easier to stay consistent with my littles) So, making your bed, clearing your plate, cleaning up toys is an expectation, but feeding the dog and helping match socks would be a "job" or chore.
This is a tough topic! What we do is we pay them $5.00 per week and they have to do a certain amount of chores. They are responsible for making their beds and cleaning their rooms as being part of our family.
I struggle with the workload and sports schedules of our 2 kids - find myself giving them a pass on chores/clean up activities. I get so mad at myself for doing this, but its hard not to empathize with them. I dont remember it being this intense when we were growing up.
Don't get mad! I do the same thing! I tell my husband all the time, he does so much work in school, then comes home and does an hour of homework, and then an hour of chores. I just want him to be able to go outside and play. Still no sure what to do about it - any idea?
We only recently started an official chore chart, but it's only for like 5 different things - laundry, cleaning up, the dishwasher, and helping take out the trash. We reward them after they get like 10 X's on the chart with a fun outing or trip or little gift (think Dollar Tree) and it changes everytime. We EXPECT them to help with these chores every time we ask them too. We also expect them to of course clean up their messes, help clean, sweep, mop, make their beds, put dirty clothes in the hamper, etc. We expect them to have a good attitude about it too.
