Oct 23 2008
THE SATURDAY CHORE LIST FOR OUR CHILDREN
When my kids were younger, maybe around 5 or 6 years old I started writing a chore list. It was important to me to have my kids understand this house is for all of us to take care of. It also was important for me to teach them to value their home. We were not well off by any means, but I took great pride in respecting our space and taking care of it. I was not a neat nick type person, I didn’t mind occasional clutter, but my kids knew to pick up after themselves. Chores like laundry and mopping and raking and dusting and the dishes were all assigned to them every Saturday morning. When they were very young I started with the simple chores of (trying) to clean their own rooms and pick up their own toys/clothes and empty their room trashcan. Then as they got older it was taking turns doing the dishes, mopping the floors, vacuming yard work etc. When your kids are very young they love helping in the yard. Certainly as they get older this chore gets more responsible and less fun, but it’s done.
My oldest son mowed the lawns and the younger ones would rake the leaves. Every Saturday morning after breakfast and some favorite cartoon shows the chores began. I wrote a list for each child and it was all spelled out which chore or chores each of them had to do. If their neighbor friends or school friends called, the standard response was “after my chores, I can play”. I know how important this teaching was because now with my kids so much older I see how it has paid off. This is also a core value, right up there with respect and manners and building good character traits. Too many children are not taught to do chores, and they grow up not caring for or respecting anything that is bought for them. They can’t because they have no sense of pride with their contribution toward their family’s home. It isn’t about money and allowance it’s also about instilling pride and responsibility in their value system. I was too poor to pay my kids an allowance, but I treated them to things every now and then that I know they could use or that they needed. It was more important for me to teach them that chores are supposed to be their part in taking care of our home and our family space. You don’t always get paid for this, it is just something we must all do as a family. Sure when they got older there were days when I just closed their own bedroom door. It was their mess, not mine. If our living areas, bathrooms and kitchen was cleaned that was more important to me. When they got older, if they wanted a messier room then they had to live with that. I tried not to stress about it too much. Eventually they would have their big cleaning day, because they needed to find a certain article of clothing that was probably buried in a huge stack of clothes.
These Saturday chore days lasted right up until all my kids moved out. If I had the funds I might have paid them a weekly allowance, but I didn’t. Instead I praised their hard work and job well done. I even witnessed the pride in themselves for their hard work. I guess in the end, that was the best lesson for them to learn. You have to pick up your own stuff, nobody should be your maid.You have to respect your living space no matter what type of home you have. I hope every family has a “Saturday chore day”….it’s a tool to help your children for the rest of their lives.