do your kids do household chores?

[perfumelady]

my three are 8, 11 and 14, i have spent most of my days tidying up after them(normal practise i know) but i was just wondering should i put some of the normal household jobs onto them, dusting,hoovering washing up etc or is that really bad, i'm not lazy but i just feel maybe if they know what is involved that they might think twice before messing something up if they are the one's that have to tidy it up. please let me know if your kids do chores what age did you make them do it.

dd3 and ds1 tidy their rooms, put dishes away and cothes piles upstairs
they get odd jobs through the week to

ds3 to tidy his toys away and get the knives and forks out

Ha just taught them a new one! To sort the clothes out for the washing and to bring them downstairs. DD1 emptyed the basket, DD2 helped bring them down. I stuffed them in and truned it on Next time I think they should be able to put a load of washing in the machine. Then I can tell DH a 4 year old can do it!! he will have NO EXCUSE

Ooh I forgot, my kids change the loo rolls when they run out, which is FAR MORE then DH does. They even put it on the holder thingy the right way!!

that would be an interesting thread what chores does your dh/dp do around the house? bet there's not many out there that do anything.

QE2 i like the rota idea, i think i will call our first ever family meeting and get this new phase in there life sorted!!

I was setting the table, loading dishwasher and washing machine, emptying bins, hoovering and dusting by the time I was 4.

DD (3) does all of above, (except load dishwasher cause we dont have one) and instead washes dishes, except glasses.(and yes, we have had a few breakages)
Tidies her toys away (max 2 out at a time)
She sorts recycling out, and helps bring it out to pavement,
makes her bed (roughly, but she tries),
folds clothes after I iron them, and puts them away, = reward of getting to choose what to wear next day
also enjoys mopping the floor,(just water, I mop at night with dettol)
polishes the taps with her magic cloth (microfibre cloth that I sewed a star onto, hence magic)
and makes me sandwiches (sometimes at random times during the night, and random contents - mustard and jam...mmmmm lol)

I know that sounds like Im a slave driver, but Im usually in the room with her and we chat/sing/play I spy, while we do it. Lovely bonding time, and it helps her appreciate that a house doesnt clean itself, and that we are a tem that work together (its just the two of us)

Ill admit that sometimes she doesnt help out, but lets face, dont we all have days like that?

I highly recommend "The Procrastinating Child" which is very good- I read it a few weks ago, and it had some great tips, mainly aimed at school age kids/teens.

Yes, I agree it's vital that kids should learn to help. DD1 is 2.9 and she will:

• put her dirty clothes and dd2's clothes in the laundry bin (every night)
• load and unload the washing machine (sometimes)
• help to tidy up her toys (with prompting/nagging)
• put away all the cutlery into the cutlery drawer after the dishwasher has been run
• help lay the table
• 'help' with sweeping the floor and cleaning appliances and glass doors (she just sweeps the dirt all over the place though) -help to make sandwiches
• help carry light bags of shopping

I used to help with a Brownie pack and was shocked to encounter 8 and 9 year-olds that didn't know how to make a sandwich.

DS1, 7 and DS2, 3 feed the cat dry cat food, help put away the shopping, put their dirty clothes in the laundry basket, tidy their rooms (DS1 better at this than DS2). DS1, often sets the table, takes the dirty dishes off the table and scrapes leftovers into the bin, makes toast for him and DS2, takes glass out of the recycling box in the garden and helps with the gardening in the summer.

Oh and DS1 puts his ironed clothes away, which is more than I can say for DH at times.

Actually Perfumelady, I am lucky in that DH has finally got his act together after 10 years and now does equal amounts. He is a SAHD at the mo, so does does a bit more, and that finally taught him why I used to get pissed off at the mess he created. He started nagging me!! His failing in the washing, he says he doesn't know how!!

TBH it will come as a bit of a shock to your kids, but my best tip it to do the cleaning/tidying WHEN THEY ARE AROUND. Instead of being the unseen cleaning fairy This way you get the hoover out in the middle of their fave programme, or tidyup around them - being as irritating as possible!! It soon gives them the idea that if they help it will get done quicker and they will be able to watch their programme in peice.

Put a new rule in place, if they are not in the house, you don't clean/tidy. Simple

crunchie thanks, from today i am no longer the magicical cleaning fairy!!!! bet there's not too many like your dh. i went away to my friends wedding and dp couldn't work out how to switch the oven on (cause there is two knobs you have to turn) so kids had to have a mcdonalds. kids thought it was great and dp thought it was funny. i must admit now my ds (14) does know how to switch it on and cook himself basic stuff. i really need to get all there arses kicked into gear.

Ds is 61/2 and he sets the dinner table and feeds the rabbit, oh and recently started making his bed he also puts his dirty clothes in his washing basket!

Dh onl does it now because his 'job' is to be a SAHD IYKWIM. If I were a SAHM I would do more, but it used to be that I worked AND did the housework, AND he used to say I was hoovering around him to make him feel bad. NO SHIT SHERLOCK!!! But I always said, I didn't have any other time. It was only when her started doing it, he realised HOW relntlessit is,that no soonerit is clean and tidy, it gets filthy aain!!

Anyway off to hoover upstairs, I can hear my kids bumping the hoover upstairs as I te. Start them youn andthey see it as a game. You wil have your work cutout with yours though!!

My ds is only 15 months, but he does try. He puts washing on the clothes horse and then pulls it off again.

I just feel that all chores are life skills that we all need to do at one point or another, my MIL to be thinks its a bit much that ds does these things( eh no because thats why after 9yrs I'm still picking up after her son) I want my children to be able to look after themselves not for my ds to get a girlfriend and for her to keep him Iyswim

Exercise caution when encouragine young children to do the hoovering. DH left our two to hoover their bedrooms one day and they sucked big purple eggs on each other's foreheads.

Lol mrsspoon I'll leave the hoovering for a while I guess

Well I am feeling smug as I sit here I have just tidied the kitchen and what can I hear??? DD2 (aged 4) HOOVERING HER BEDROOM, dd1 (6) HAS JUST FINISHED

They don't usually do it without asking, yelling, bribing (pocket money etc) BUT they do it, and today they have done extra, so I have given them extra pocket money. It means when we go on holiday they can choose and pay for one big toy each. So have to make sure they earn about £10 each in the next month

i think all children need to help from a very young age otherwise they take you for granted and moan about doing it also if you do it tiogether then you can sit with them and read or play.

my dd1 is 6 and she helps
load/ unload washing machine/ tumble dryer
wipes down tables
dusts
tidies her own room
sometimes (off her own back) makes our bed
hoovers the stairs with the hand held hoover
puts her own clothes away
makes her own drinks (from the button on the fridge)
tidies up toys/ her mess
sorts the cushions on the sofa.

she doesnt do these everyday but as and when/ if she is here.

You are all cruel and depriving them of their childhood

noddyholder, my dd loves it, and because she helps out I have more time to take her out to do other things, like tot groups, for playdates or to the park.

Im not going to discourage her, and I have never pushed her either..though if she was older and doing nothing but leave mess around, I would push it.

haha Noddy, yes they all have to go to work 9-5 and pay lots of bills just like the adults. Good point.

Actually I've been thinking about this thread and it dawned on me that I did very little as a child in the way of chores. I wonder how much this has to do with my Mum being one of six and her Mum dying when she was 16 and her being left to care for her three younger siblings (the older two got married), I think she felt a bit cheated as she had a lot of responsibility within the home from an early age. As a child I did tidy my room but not on a regular basis.

DH on the otherhand was, IMO, given too much in the way of chores as a child and he always expects far more of our DSs than I do chores-wise.

We are trying to somehow or other find a balance between our two upbringings.

FWIW I don't think not being given much in the way of chores as a child has made me incapable of looking after myself/family, I was brought up in a clean house and try my best to keep my own house at least half as clean and I watched my Mum clean often so had a vague idea how it was done.

Mrs Spoon, I was a bit like you, I did very little around the house until I was a teenager and then did a bit of cooking and occasionally tidied my room. My room was a tip!
My mum was probably like most women of her age, expected to do a lot in the home from a young age (pre domestic appliances etc...) and to find work when she was young, to contribute to the household income. I think she deliberately avoided placing those kind of pressures upon me as a child. Not that she didn't complain.
I now try to keep the house as clean and occasionally, tidy as I can within the constraints of looking after a baby and working part-time, but I think I would ask ds to help tidy a little more than I did. I think it might have given me a stronger sense of responsibility and made me a little more thoughtful as a teenager if I had helped more around the home.

I have 3 girlsage 18,16 and 14. The 18 year old is now at uni living in halls, but when she is here she often cleans the kitchen and does the washing up. The other two are expected to keep thier rooms tidy and make their own beds. They take turns with my husband and I in cleaning the bathroom. The 16 year oldsometimes irons her own clothes I ( I don't mind doing them if I.m doing a load of ironing anyway). The 14 year old is dyspraxic so I haven't let her use the iron yet!
They also wash up and hoover when asked to.
They have alswys since they were about 3 been expected to help tidy up after themselves. At your childerns age they were expected to do this themselves without help.