I gave them a shot of steroids and now I love them EVEN MORE!
Don't get me wrong. They were great, and we have used them ever since I made them. But there was just one teensy, weensy little problem.
I had to actually remember to write all those chores on there every day. Some days, I would remember first thing in the morning before the kids woke up. Other days, I would be really on top of things and I would fill in the Chore Boards before I went to bed the night before. But a lot of days (we aren't counting how many days) I wouldn't think of it until noon. It is pretty hard to hold your kids accountable for completing their morning chores when you don't actually write them on the board until noon. And a lot of days I would forget entirely. Please tell me I'm not the only mom who does this stuff.
So I decided to do something about my mom-brain. I mean, it's their chores. Why should I have to remember everything, right? Right!?!
First, I made a fancy-smansy little chart with everything already on there. Then I put it in their Chore Board Frames. Now all they have to do is check things off with a dry erase pen as they do them (the glass works like a white board). And all I have to do is check up on their checks marks. Easy peasy.
Some things need to be done every day (like, say, making the bed), but other things only need to be done once a week (like cleaning the windows), so I made different sections on the chart. There is a place for morning chores, evening chores, daily chores (each kid does a different chore each day) and even some attitude reminders, because I don't care how clean that toilet is. I'm not happy if I had to listen to my kiddo complain the entire time he cleaned it. AmIright?
Here's what I put on our charts (with slight variations for my older kids):
The "Daily Chore Part is different for each of our four children. I could ask them to do more, but our oldest two work outside the home and have a lot of other obligations now, so they aren't here as much. Our youngest is just about to turn 5 and is still in training, and our 11 year old...well...let's just say he's a work in progress. If your kids make breakfast, clean-up, scrub the entire house, do all the laundry and give you a foot massage all before 7 am, please don't tell me. I want to savor my little chore chart for awhile before you blow me away with your awesomeness.
Anyway, here are the daily chores for each kiddo, keeping in mind that they are also available to do whatever I need in addition to their regular chores. I don't have them do chores on Sundays or Wednesdays because we are super-busy on those days and I'm not an ogre.
This is working out super well so far, and I'm loving not having to remember everything the kids are supposed to be doing. It didn't take me that long to set this up, and it's saving me tons of time each day writing everything out. Why, oh why, didn't I do this sooner?
What do you think? How do you stay on top of your kids' daily tasks? And if you're the mom whose kids do everything and give you a foot massage, How do you do that!?!
Have a great day!
Angela
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