Clean House, Happy Mom

I remember as a child waking up every morning, even on weekends, to a chore list.  If we went to school that day, we had to complete our chores immediately when we got home before we could do anything else.  I would have friends spend the night and my mom would put them to work as well.  As a child I hated this.  I remember thinking about how it would be different when I had kids.

Well here we are today and I’m officially that mom.  I don’t think I’ll be as crazy when they have friends over but yes they will have chores everyday and yes I will be just as hard on them.  Having worked with college students for 5 years I learned a lot.  I learned the importance of teaching your kids when they’re young about responsibility, hard work, and independence.  I couldn’t begin to tell you how many college students, ahem adults, that didn’t learn these qualities and the effects it had on them now in adulthood.  They didn’t take pride in their work, they were used to mommy or daddy doing everything for them, and they expected their job to be easy or they wouldn’t do the work in its entirety.

This is scary!  It’s scary to think they will be going into the real world where things aren’t handed to them and they aren’t coddled around every corner.  I want my children to learn these important qualities now so that by the time they are going to college it’s second nature for them to be a responsible, hardworking person.

I believe we can start teaching our kids these values at the young age of 1.  I’ve conducted a list of chores great for your child by age.  Understand that you will have to show your children how to properly complete a chore the first couple times, but after that give them the independence to complete the task.  Kids are much smarter than you think and they are very capable of grasping a concept after being shown 2-3 times even as an infant.  I’m also going to prepare you for those strong willed ones.  I have one that sometimes misses out on fun things or rewards because he refused to do his chore.  Just the other day he had to stay home with dad while the rest of us went swimming because he simply refused to clean up his room.  It’s tough at first but after a few consequences they will learn and it will happen few and far between.

I’ve created a list of items children of all kinds of ages can do for chores around the house.  There are so many other good options as well but I hope you find this as a good starting point for your family.  We reward our kids with allowance (change) for every task they finish, without being asked more than once and without throwing a fit.  I’ve also done a reward system where they get stickers, tickets or stamps and for every 5 or 10 they get something.  It could be as small as we go pick something from the dollar section of target to going out for ice cream.

Every chore item my kids have includes kid friendly cleaning solutions.  A few I love because they truly clean, smell delightful, and are safe for my kids and dog are as follows:

• For dishes- Better Life or Mrs Meyers
• Counter tops and pretty much everything else like doors, toys, cars-Whatever Spray or  Everyday Lavender
• Dusting- Seventh Generation
• Bathroom- Tub & Tile Cleaner

Happy Cleaning!

Jackie