Chore Chart Happiness
A beginner's perspective
Posted by Arwen Mosher
in Family
on Wednesday, September 07, 2011 8:02 PM
Okay, this is funny: I wrote this piece and went to post it, but when I checked I noticed that Rachel already covered this topic today. It’s the time of year, I guess! I decided to post my piece anyway - I feel like her musings on the topic have something completely different to offer. The voice of experience to contrast with my voice of idealism, if you will. Make sure you don’t miss what she has to say!
Here’s mine:
Three years ago, when Danielle posted here about her family’s chore schedule, my oldest was not yet two. I skimmed the piece, but I remember thinking, this won’t apply to me for a long, long time.
Fast forward to summer 2011. With baby twins, I spend a lot of time trapped on the couch. It’s hard for me, because I can’t stand to be in the middle of a mess. The upside: my situation has forced me to put my big kids to work. Camilla’s almost five and Blaise is two and a half, and they’re plenty old enough, it turns out, to do their part.
It was a hodge-podge for a while, with me giving random directions at random times throughout the day. It got the job done, but it occurred to me after a while that we could use some structure.
Enter chore charts. I am a go-with-the-flow person generally, not really a list or chart maker. I admire people who are organized like that, but it doesn’t come naturally to me. That’s my excuse for the fact that it took me months to think of making chore charts. The actual construction of them took about half an hour, and voila! Our lives are suddenly much more systematic.
Just like the Bean family chores in the post I linked to above, ours are organized by time of day. Since my kids are so young, the jobs are simple, and for motivation and fun we use stickers on our chart. Camilla and Blaise aren’t always thrilled to do their chores (what kid is?) but now that we’ve been using the charts for a few weeks, they’re getting used to the routine, which helps.
My favorite things about the charts? One, they’ve made it much easier for my husband to get things done with the kids. Sometimes if the babies and I are still in bed, he’ll knock out morning chores and have the kids dressed and their bedroom in order before he even wakes me up. That is awesome. And two, the charts give structure and a sense of accomplishment to our day in a way I didn’t expect, but am pleasantly surprised by.
For our family right now, chore charts get two thumbs up. Thanks for the inspiration, Danielle!
(In case you want to see them, here’s a link to the charts I use with my kids: Mosher Family Chore Charts.)
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