family responsbilities

Yes, I realize that to some, this idea might seem foolish. After all, entropy exists in all spaces that kids inhabit. Messes and children are practically synonymous.

However, it IS possible to keep a clean house that houses children without hiring a housekeeper (or doing it all yourself). I promise. I have five little (and not so little) munchkins. I gave up dreams of a perfect house long ago – but I can also assure you that my house ranks reasonably high in the “tidy” factor.

How do I do it? Why slave labor, of course. (At least that’s what my kids might call it). I refer to it as “earning your keep”. Nothing comes for free in this house.

Sure, I’m obligated to feed, clothe, love and teach you, and part of that teaching demands that you learn to clean up after yourselves. I’ve blogged about it before. As a review, the basic rundown is this:

1. Self-maintenance chores: These include tidying your own spaces (bedroom, primarily), picking up after yourself in common areas, and other such things that are age-appropriate such as packing your own lunch for school, brushing your teeth, doing laundry, etc. As a child gets older, self-maintenance chores increase in number, as do his/her privileges. My kids are not paid for these chores – they are regarded as an opportunity to learn independence.
2. Family chores: These are responsibilities outlined on a chore chart. They benefit the entire family and apply to spaces occupied/used by everyone in the family. They include things like cleaning bathrooms, vacuuming, dusting, etc. I break them down into smaller tasks to trick their minds into thinking they’re doing less work. And it works! Though the kids don’t earn money for each specific chore, their “allowance” is contingent upon satisfactory completion of them on a weekly basis.
3. Paid chores: I assign these on an as-needed basis. I pretty much always have extra work available, if the kids want to earn a little cash on the side. My personal favorites (in other words, the chores I tend to neglect): sorting socks, shredding paper bills and statements, cleaning windows, and dusting blinds.

Since we added an extra 700 square feet onto our house in 2018, Tim and I determined that we needed to reconfigure our chore chart a bit to accommodate the extra space. (And to keep me from having to do the legwork). Because, hello, I am a homemaker, not everyone’s personal maid.

Here’s the new chore chart.

It looks about the same as the old chore chart (to trick the kiddos into thinking nothing has changed, of course) but it accounts for the new bathroom, the extra living space downstairs, and the bonus room.

We do all these chores on a Friday afternoon, and, I kid you not, each of my daughters only has to do about 30-45 minutes of work (in addition to cleaning their rooms) and the house is immaculate. Almost.

Seriously, don’t hire a housekeeper. Put those kids to work. It’s their house, too. They need to feel some ownership and responsibility. That is best accomplished with good old-fashioned elbow grease.