Your best tips for getting kids involved in housework?

[Lovage]

I want my kids (8 and nearly 6) to do more housework. So the adults have to do less and also so that they learn valuable life skills (everybody ought to know how to clean a toilet) and about taking appropriate responsibility. They don't do much at the moment but I think they'd be persuadable if I framed it right.

I don't want to go down the payment/bribery/stickers route and clearly I haven't managed to get them to just expect to help, which would doubtless be the magic trick but, what do you know, I was too knackered when they were toddlers to get this sorted. That's where I'd like them to end up.

Does anyone have any good tips? One thing that prevents it, I think, is that they just aren't aware of what needs doing - they look at a room and can't see that it's a mess, they don't think of sweeping the crumbs up from under the table, and dos on so some kind of semi-pictorial (DS2 is only just reading) list of jobs that need doing most days might help.

Or am I on a hiding to nothing? I didn't do anything except cooking and very occasional hoovering and dusting until I left home. But then I work and my mother mostly didn't, so it's not the same.

I think it's more sorting out where everything goes so everyone has stuff to hand that easily can be done

Ie a washing basket in every bedroom, clothes off go straight in basket, no other option. Just a small wicker basket on shelf fine if seperate rooms as only one persons stuff and emptied every so often

Have a schedule. So they can physically see it. Ie at 6 and 8 I would expect them to be able to strip bed for washing. So say Tuesdays you wash their bedding, then on tues morning remind them to look at schedule and see what needs doing. They just can strip bed and put in washing basket after dressed tues am. Then it's much quicker for adult to just go and collect it and put wash on as job divided by 3 instead of jut one person

So make each child chore list for week and put on bedroom wall. Nothing major but enough that they can do easily, but helps whole household. Once in the habit they should so automatically, but you prob need to remind each morning to look at list and do before leaving house.
So for 8 year old say:
Monday - strip bedding. Leave in washing basket
Tuesday - check house for any stuff belonging to them and take back to own bedroom and put where it belongs
Wednesday - take small washing basket down to main basket to empty. Sort into whites and darks if you have 2 main baskets. Take small basket back up
Thursday - tidy shoe rack. Find any random shoes not in rack and return
Friday - put all towels in main washing basket for washing

Obviously adapt to what's relavent to your home.

New House rules:

• everyone places used dishes/ cutlery either in sink or in dishwasher.
• one evening a week 30 mins everyone tidies/ cleans together ( ie you can clean kitchen, 8 year old Hoover downstairs, 6 year old help dh clean bathroom with water cloth or whatever)

You need to allocate them jobs. It's not really age appropriate to expect them to look at a room and see the crumbs etc. Possibly if you start it from toddlers but if not that's something they'll have to develop later.

You can either give them jobs and they choose which to do, or make each child responsible for a certain area.

I saw a nice idea on pinterest...

I give my 7yo specific jobs todo, like tidy up the books, or clear all the plates and glasses from the table. She loves the steam mop too, which is helpful! Even my 4yo has to help, she is asked to pick up something specific and put them in their box Loom bands.....) or she helps me peg the washing out.

It's a start......

I can't find it any more, I must not have saved it. Anyway it was a note to the person's children where they addressed each one with a superhero name and their duties, very well done.

Ooh, that does sound good, BertieBotts. Can you remember any more? I'm sure making it appeal to fun and imagination must be a winner.

I do, of course, ask them to do specific things, I just don't think I'm very systematic about it, so they don't do it regularly (apart from a few things like clearing their places after meals and putting shoes/coats/bags away when they get in from school). Some kind of jobs list with them choosing which tasks to do feels like a good way to go to me. Although I can also see the 'being responsible for a particular thing' working, especially for DS1. Hmm.

Any other recommendations or approaches?

I just apply same rules as nursery/club. If place not tidy then no dinner, going outside, doing anything etc.

I gave my 4 a choice lol. They chose 2 favourites, (eg., emptying recycling, watering pot plants, opening and closing curtains, feeding cat, empty dishwasher). I put them on a list to remind me. I have to remind them but they do it. On top of this I expect them to tidy their beds everyday. Also meal time jobs. One is cutlery, one makes drinks, one fetches condiments, etc. Fab system!

Oh they know that their pocket money is dependent on it!

I like Artandco 's idea of having one small job to do on each day of the week!

My older 2 are 5 and 6 and I think I am going to steal this idea. I really want them to be more involved so that I have more time to do fun stuff with them and so they can learn how a house runs.

I left home clueless and it's taken me years to get the hang of running a home. I genuinely had no idea how much work went into it my parents house is a tip

Now just need to think of a good way to display the chores on a sheet that looks good. I am thinking of some sort of tick chart or something but maybe I am over complicating things as usual

With our 2 year old when I sing the tidy up song she tidies ip. Her toys are in trofasts so she knows to put them back once the song starts.

Then dd6 I say its tidy up time. She will tidy up and if anything missed I will point it out. She makes breakfast for her and dd2, keeps bedroom and living room tidy, puts away all our shoes in shoe cupboard, puts all laundry in the basket.

If more than one trofast drawer out thats fine but no one is having dinner or going anywhere or doing anything until its all away unless agreed. Eg a town that has been set up and is allowed out until next day but no piles of toys in living room/or all over place in living room