15 July 2013

Do You Pay for Chores?

Have you seen "the box?"  Apparently if your kid leaves stuff lying around, you're supposed to take it and put it into "the box."  To get the item back, your child must pick a "chore card" from the deck located on the box's side.  This is a great way to teach kids that chores are punishment, and that they can't just have a messy day here and there.  It also sets up an adversarial relationship, if you don't have one already.  Eesh, who thinks of this stuff?

But then there's the flip side of that.  The lax parent who couldn't be bothered to correct her child or make him do anything that he doesn't wanna.  That includes saying please or thank you.  Why raise the child to be inauthentic and thank you if he isn't truly thankful, right? 

I think theory and "what you do when you're actually in the situation" are really two different things.  I won't even get into my fantasies of how nicely my children would actually behave before they were born.  Ha!  My uncle always said that when he had kids, he'd have a whistle.  When he blew it, all the children would line up by size, just as they did in the Sound of Music. He was a really funny guy, and could say it in such a way that you weren't quite sure whether he was serious.  I'm still not sure.  It didn't work out that way, obviously.

Guess what, though.  Chores have to be done!  It can't be all me, all day, doing absolutely everything.  I tell my children that the money they get for their chores is really just a tip.  No way anyone would clean three toilets for $2 in the real world.  But on the flip side of that, we do feed you every day, you know?  So there's that.


2 comments:

  1. [I won't even get into my fantasies of how nicely my children would actually behave before they were] I was a way better parent before I had kids too.

    I don't pay for chores. I did recently decide to give my kids $5 every two weeks that they could spend, save or do whatever. Mom is off the can I have a get candy at the store, can I get a foot long sub (instead of a $4 Kids pack) at Subway, can I get this movie it is only $5, I don't have any new Wii games roller coaster. They can learn to manage money, keep it somewhere safe, make a budget, etc. I am done. I didn't tie it to chores, because it wasn't really my intent to get them to work for everything they get.

    That being said, I don't have trouble with chores generally. I work with the kids rather than assigning them a job and they usually don't really fuss all that much about it. I just tell them I will let them use my electricity (the stuff that runs the TV, Wii, computer) etc. when the house is picked up and their jobs are done.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That. Is stinkin' awesome. I can just imagine them looking at what they want to buy, figuring out money is limited, and planning ahead.

      They need to be national leaders when they grow up! Some very big people haven't learnt this lesson yet!

      Delete

Non-troll comments always welcome! :)

Bringing Garbage Home

Some people up the street were throwing this table away. It was in pretty bad shape and one of the legs was off. I've glued the leg back...