Our New Chore System

After visiting family in Redding for Christmas, we stopped to visit with friends in Davis.  Our friends, the Morejohns, also have four children, but are way more organized than us!  While we were there, I noticed that they had assigned chores for their three oldest children.  While we have required our children to do chores from an early age, we certainly didn't have a systematic approach.  When something needed doing, I would just say say the word and everyone would work together to accomplish said task.  As you may imagine, this did not often work well.  Although we should love one another and work together in complete unity, there was often strife!  "But, I wanted to put Daddy's bowl in the dishwasher!"  "But, I need the stepstool!"  "I'm trying to put xxx away and she's just following me around not doing anything!"  Or, since no one knew exactly when I was going to decide it was necessary for a chore to get done, someone was always being interrupted from playing or reading. 

After we returned home from our visit, I was mulling  over implementing some sort of a new chore system and even mentioned the idea to David.  Then, out of the blue, Mary came to me and said, "Mama, do you think we could have a schedule like Peter does that shows what chores we are supposed to do?"  This new system was drafted that very day!

We have been using our new chore system for about a month now.  One blessing that I didn't anticipate is that it gives me one-on-one time with each of the girls to train them in the tasks.  I can help each girl learn how to put the dishes in the dishwasher properly or actually wipe the crumbs off the table (instead of just pushing them around).  Each of the girls has even taken ownership of their assigned tasks and actually looks forward to doing their chores now!

Please note the boys are in training, too.  They each like to carry their silverware to the shisha and are also learning how to clean up the aftermath of the tornadoes that frequently come through our house!

Please note also that there are still other tasks that need doing on a moment's notice that we all just work together to accomplish.