what can I reasonably expect my dc's (6 & 0) to do around the house?

[MrsBigD]

The title says it all LOL

Basically am fed up with the 'I want', 'So not fair' and 'I neeeeeeed' phase that I thought as a new year thing I am going to instigate an allowance that they will get at the end of each week for tasks rendered.

My problem is I don't want to reinforce their attitude that they should get a reward for everything they do...

I have 2 categories in mind:

1. 'normal things' which would warrant base pocket money, like tidying up their room, putting away their stuff, doing their homework etc. ; and

1. 'special things' that would warrant a little bit on top, like helping me around the house (I'm a work from home mum and somehow everything seems to be stuck with me ;) )

Question now is what can I realistically expect them to do on a daily/weekly basis?

TIA :)

ah that should be dc's 6 & 9! wouldn't expect a newborn to do squat all ;)

oh and am I being unreasonable to expect my kids to at rare occasions think about what mama would like as opposed to being 110% self centred?

Thanks MadamDeathstare (love the name btw

will sit down with dh and devise tasks for the kids... and prepare myself for some broken dishes and bumped furniture ;)

MrsBigD

We keep adding new tasks to keep it interesting for our our DC's 9 & 11. They actually cooked lunch for us all one day last week and we are increasing the 'difficulty level' of chores we ask them to share.

We always give support and praise and always make sure that they know that the giving and receiving of praise and thanks for jobs done goes both ways - we expect them to thank myself or DW for jobs done that they benefit from.

During the holidays (when everything gets some much messier) it is a pleasure to have them do a few of the jobs around the house that DW and I would normally be stuck with.

My DS 6 likes doing jobs for me and in the morni g will often empty the dishwasher and make breakfast for himself and brother 2 without me asking. I show him an enormous amount of appreciation ESP as DH is crap at seeing what needs doing and doing it. He also has a sticker chart and I will give him stickers for exceptional goodness.
He can tidy his room, make bed
Sort washing
Tidy toys and other mess
Do some cleaning jobs - will attempt anything
Hoover
Make breakfast and get drinks if he needs one.

I am taking advantage to 'train' him before the novelty wears off!

DS2 age 2 will put his dirty clothes in the laundry bin, get himself a drink and piece of fruit if I say he can, help tidy toys

I'm not really sure about having pocket money depending on chores.

DH and I were thinking of a base amount of money (hypothetical as our DCs are 3 and 1) which they get UNLESS they behave badly in the week, and then maybe they can get a 'bonus' for doing extra things, but I'm not sure if that's a good idea.

I wasn't brought up to help at all, and then at some age I was suddenly told I was lazy so I really want to give my DCs a good start. DD helps with some things but there isn't really anything she can do on her own yet and she doesn't have a good example to follow in her slattern mummy

Threads like this remind me to make more of an effort!

I think I'd tie it in with learning about money and budgeting, and income being related to how much work they do with bonuses available for extra tasks. I'd even charge them a nominal 'rent' to get them used to the idea that not all the money they earn is theirs to spend on whatever they want (this money would go in their college fund although they wouldn't know it at the time) and maybe encourage them to give a few pence to charity each week. Would probably be easier to work out if you give them coins rather than a note.

I would have thought the 9 year old could do most normal household tasks, and the 6 year old could certainly help with the laundry, tidying, drying up etc.

Frosty - I was like you never asked to help, my Mum did everything because 'she knew best', and then suddenly at 13/14 the goalposts changed and I was bollocked everyday for being lazy, inconsiderate etc! Was very upsetting and something I want to avoid as well.

ds 7 and dd 4 do jobs:
take clothes out of washing machine and hang up (with supervision).
take piles of their clothes up to the bedrooms and put in drawers.
tidy up toys.
hang coats up and put shoes in basket.
clean back door (french window) on the outside only (water everywhere)
hoover.
swept the snow off front step.
put their bowls on the side when finished breakfast (and glasses).

have a 16 month old as well, but obviously he just makes the mess.

My 7 year old gets 10p for finishing every library book - so about 50p a week. This has worked in helping him concentrate on one book at a time and avoid having too many on the go.

I don't give them any other money.

We work as a team and i expect them to do the following...

• 20 mins worth of jobs Saturday and Sunday
• a small number of quick jobs on school days

The jobs vary depending on what needs to happen in the house. They could involve...

• clearing the rubbish out of the car
• emptying/putting dishes in the dish washer
• sorting dry clean clothes in piles and putting them in drawers.
• sorting through the odd sock pile
• tidy toys away
• sorting recycling
• brushing cats

These are the school day jobs.

• helping put younger brother into coats/shoes b4 schoolrun

-brushing younger brothers hair and teeth in morning

• make own bed

-put dirty washing into washing pile

• put PJ's under pillow

putting bowls/plates by dish washer after a meal

I do think it's really worth while teaching them to do jobs at an early age, including cooking and shopping for food. They may moan, but it's all to their benefit.

My poor DH was never expected / allowed to lift a finger in the house, and the result was that he found himself aged 20 or so working and living abroad, unable to do the simplest thing for himself. At the time, the country he lived in didn't have ready meals or tins of baken beans or take-away pizzas, so he had to learn to cook very, very quickly. It turned out he loved cooking and was perfectly able to keep a house clean without something going horribly wrong - who'd have thought it?