Doug and Tammie agree that raising children to be responsible adults takes organization and teamwork. They have tried and failed on other Chore Chart Systems so far the one they have landed on is working and wanted to share the details.
Here’s how it works:
Personalized Chore Chart
It starts with the weekly Personal Chores. Each child can be different on these depending on what it is they need to work on. However, the PC’s are chores they have to do every day. We fill these in together at the end of the day. It gives them input and they are more apt to do them and eliminates the whine factor and we are not talking about your favorite Merlot here.
These chores are the basics as we tell the kids. They are not back breaking just good habits to get into. Things like brushing their teeth, taking a shower, make their bed, do their homework. For these personal chores they receive Merits that are turned in for time on the computer, Ipad, TV, X-Box.
Merits/Demerits (merit demerit pdf)
Merits are the points that have been assigned for a personal chore. They range from 5 to 30 Merits.
Demerits are points that are subtracted from the Merit total when it is a behavior that we do not want to reward. These range from -5 to a -50.
Work For Hire
We have the “Work For Hire Chores” which are chores the kids earn money doing chores that we normally would do. The rule on this is the kids HAVE to complete their Personal Chores first before they can do a Work For Hire Chore. This motivates them to complete their daily chores. Work For Hire Chores are chores like: Help With Dinner, Clean Dishes, Sweep Floor, Clean Bathroom. All chores range from $1 to $5 depending on the type of chore. So far there have been no takers to do the Sock Matching.
Tips and Tricks
- Having the kids fill in their own personal chore merits and going over it with them at the end of the day is key.
- They can only do 2 Work For Hires after that if they want to do more they have to ask their siblings and check with us first.
- The amount of money for each chore depends on you and your financial situation.
- The chores go from Sunday to Sunday and any money left over goes towards the next weeks chores.
- Be sure to put the chore chart in an area where the family sees it on a regular basis.
- Don’t expect the kids to do the same quality of work you would do. We chose some pretty easy tasks so the kids would not fail. It is meant to give them some added responsibility while building their self esteem. If you badger them about HOW something is done it could backfire on you.
Truly we rather see them dusting instead of writing faces in the dust any day!
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