Suggestions please for household chores for a 14 yr old

[tengreenbottles]

Completly fed up with my Cinderella role in this house and feel the time is nigh for a spot of arse kicking metaphorically ,so what chores would you allocate a 14yr old boy and his 6yr old sister ? Currently they do bugger all ,so all suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

hmmm..
-take care of THEIR rooms like

make bed
pick up toys/clothes
sort laundry
-take turns clearing off table after dinner OR setting Table
place or remove dishes
scrape dishes
load dish washer or stack for washing
-put own laundry away
-hoovering is an easy one all you have to do is push around a machine

A good idea would be make a chart for certain chores on certain days of the week. and if they do them they get a reward like an allowance or at the end of the week get to choose a toy of their choice (6yer old) under 10 pound or whatever.

I guess you just have to let them know teh value of a pound. you cant get somethgn for doig nothign and especially for the boy he can't rely on a women to pick up after him his whole life or his wife is going to be pissed off with you
its all life preperation right..
good luck

At 14 I had to cook 1 meal a night (actually I had been doing this for 4 years by then). I also had to fold and put away laundry, clean my room and empty the dishwasher.

I'd def be getting them to help. The 6 year old is harder - making the bed, tidying room, etc.

Good luck!

Oooops I meant 1 meal a week!

A 14 I could do everything I do now. I could clean a bathroom, vacuum, wash up, cook, iron. I would say that learning to cook would be a big one, as he will need those skills very soon. The 6 year old could set table.

6 year old could sort clothes into coloured and light and grab them out of a front loading machine and put in basket. 14 year old could hang out and bring in neatly folded.

Ds is nearly 6 and puts his clothes in the wash basket, sorts out socks and undies to be put away, folds facecloths, tidies his room, sets the table and helps with vacuuming (does his room and normally wants to do the hallway before he gets tired bored), he recycles paper and tins.

If your 6 year old is canny though she will work out that she will be doing jobs for an additional 8 years to your ds!

I used to do the weekly supermarket shop and get picked up afterwards. I quite enjoyed it and my Mam loved it.

My two year old hangs all of the small items of washing on the clothes horse. My five year old sets the table.

They both sort out there own washing. I do struggle with getting them to put their toys away though.

My 13 year old just does her share - she hovers, dusts, cooks, washes up, shops, irons - she can do anything I ask her to do. What I ask her to do depends on how busy she is-if it's a big homework week then I don't ask her to do much. In the holidays we all dash round getting everything done so that we're free to do more fun stuff. My 7 year old can dust and tidy and wash up and clean shoes and hoover -anything he's strong and tall enough for.

I don't agree with pocket money being dependent on jobs, by the way. I think pocket money is something you get because you need some money, and housework is something you do becuae we all live together in our family 'community" and we all need to contribute to it. I don't think the two should be linked.

thanks for all your suggestions , i know i have made a rod for my own back ,i think i have let them have an easy life beacause as a child i did loads in the house ,plus meals ,babysitting my brother ,most of the ironing ,washing ,cleaning etc and i really resented it .

My 2 year old helps out with all sorts of chores - loading/unloading dishwasher, sorting laundry, emptying/filling washing machine, hanging up washing on the airer, polishing, laying the table - all under supervision I might add!

Your 14 year old has got off lightly!

A good chore if he wants something special is defrosting the freezer or cleaning the oven - that's what I used to have to do. Another one can be writing shopping lists/ordering on line shopping. Helps develop awareness of the cost of living as well as healthy eating etc.

Id expect a 14 year old to be capable of doing everything required to run a household (except family finances of course), and a 6 year old to do anything that doesnt involve very heavy, hot or sharp things (some could be done with supervision)

What about putting chores (vacuum living room / mop kitchen floor / dust tv etc) down on wee bits of paper and placing in a tub. Each child picks out say, 4 bits of paper and does them. The 6 year old would need more supervision, obviously. Add in a bit of paper with a treat written on it - "choose a family movie for friday night", or whatever.

I have index cards written out - one job to each card and a time estimate written on it. Whatever I get done while shes at school I take out, so whatevers left is to be done by us together, or in the case of ironing, by me in front of tv at night ;) )

I set a timer and challenge dd to do as many "jobs" as she can in half an hour. I do the same, then we play a game or read a story when the time is up. She also tries to beat the time est written on the card.

Yesterday she drew the card for building a bookcase (ikea flatpack) which took her almost 2 hours to complete, and I had to find more nails to replace the ones she bent....but she did a great job and was well chuffed with herself.

My 14 year old brings in heavy baskets of logs and coal from the creepy outbuildings, in the dark and rain.

I hate doing that stuff so much I don't make him do anything else , though he does tidy his room if his mates are coming round.

Right im ringing social services on you ,making a child build flat pack furniture is clearly against every human right in the book EVER!!!!
p.s. how did you get them to do it ?

My dd and my niece put together a whole flat pack bedroom when they were 12! It took them the whole weekend - but they refused all help, insisted on having the door shut, and got it all done in the end. They had a brilliant time - but will, I guess never ever do it again!

tengreenbottles - my dd loves all that stuff. Its like a big jigsaw puzzle! She was devastated last time I built a bed without her, as the allen key bit is "her job".

BTW, it was a small bookcase and I was closely supervising, and did all the heavy lifting and turning etc etc, she just worked out where all the bits went, put them in place and turned the screws/hammered in the nails)