Expert Tips on When and How to Get Your Kid to CLEAN UP!

With the kids home for the summer, it becomes extremely important for parents to lay down the ground rules early and let their children know what is expected of them while they are on summer break...seriously, do you know how fast a house can go from "so clean you can eat off the floors" to "OMFG I'd rather move than clean up this mess" when the kids are on a break from school?  My children range in age from 15 (yes, it's hard for me to believe too) all the way down to 5 and I don't know about y'all, but it's always been so hard for me to try and figure out what age was a good age for my children to actually start doing chores.  While all of my children do have chores now that they are expected to do every day before they are allowed to do the "fun stuff" ( we won't get into if they actually do them every day without a fight or not...that's another blog post), it wasn't easy figuring out when the right time was for my kids to start helping out around the house.  Since I know that I'm not the only Mommy out there who struggles with making this decision, I thought I'd have Gregg Murset (CEO of My Job Chart) to weigh in and give us a little insight!

About Gregg:

As the Chief Executive Officer of My Job Chart, Murset has committed the last four years to building the largest online community and fastest growing website teaching kids about work ethic and making smart money decisions.

MJC was born from real life experience. Murset is a father of six children (ages 6 to 16) and needed a way to teach them about earning, saving and spending money. With no system available for a family with a large range in ages, Murset came up with the idea to combine modern technology with the traditional allowance system to teach responsibility, accountability and the fundamentals of financial literacy.

Now with over 556,000 members, 19.3 millions chores completed by kids and an economic impact over $3 million, My Job Chart is leading the battle to reverse the culture of entitlement and credit addiction that plagues American families today.

Well then, now that we've established that Gregg is indeed qualified to give us a little better understanding of when and how we can get our little ones to help us out around the house, I'd like to share some of my favorite tips from Gregg with y'all!

Little ones are liked crazed little monsters when it comes to toys, it seems that in just five short minutes they come crashing in and turn a living room into a mass destructed mini town. So when is the time that you get stop cleaning up and your two year old finally chills the heck out? How do you even tell a three year old to pick up? My Job Chart creator has created a list of tips that will help parents of young kids valuable tools about when it is time to teach these beasts a little housekeeping.

When

1. You Can Feel It … Most parents get “the feeling” when their children are capable of learning something new or taking on a task. It’s no different with picking up responsibilities around the house. Don’t ignore your gut and begin recognizing that your kids can be a get help to you.

2. Start Them Young … The basic rule is - if your children are old enough to take toys out to play, then they are old enough to put them away. The same goes with most other things around the house, even clothes, dishes, video games or items used out at the pool.

3, It’s Your Call … Don’t let so-called experts put an age range on particular jobs your kids could be doing. While it might not make sense to someone living in big city why a 10-year old would ever run lawnmower, in America’s heartland, it’s not uncommon for a 10-year old handling equipment on the farm. If you know they can complete harder chores safely, maybe you should let them try. It’s your call.

How

1. Understand Why It’s Important To Have Kids Do Chores & Receive Rewards … Using chores & rewards to teach our kids about responsibility, accountability and money has been around for decades. It’s easy, effective and can change as your child grows. Kids need structure and providing them with a daily routine or responsibilities, only help them later in life.

2. Be Consistent … When it comes to kids doing chores around the house, often there is only one thing stopping the kids - parents. Whether it’s because we get busy and forgot, get tried of nagging or just find it quicker to do it ourselves, parents are often the reason kids stop doing chores. Parents need to be consistent, demanding and set proper expectations when it comes to chores. 

3. Be Fair … Kids understand right and wrong or fair and unfair. Separate the chores evenly or rotate them so the worst chores aren’t always with one child. If you are rewarding your children for jobs well done, don’t be afraid to compensate one child more than another if the chores they handle are more difficult or are less attractive.  

4. Don’t Let Other Things Get In The Way … Dance practice, music lessons, football games, baseball practice and homework are just a few things your child has on their plate each day. As a parent, teach your child from an early age how to manage time and set priorities, by doing all these things plus the daily chores. There are life lessons in everything, don’t drop off things around the house because outside activities make life busy. We certainly can’t do that as adults, can we?

5. Stress Saving & Sharing … If you provide a reward for your kids, make sure to stress saving and sharing. Everyone knows how to spend … it’s like breathing … you just do it. Saving and sharing takes practice, a plan and often some research. In the long run, however, your kids will see the benefits and continue to do these things as adults. It’s like riding a bike - learn it early in life and you can always do it again later. Learn it later in life and it’s more difficult.

I hope these tips will come in handy when you're trying to decide if your little ones are old enough to start helping out around the house.  I know that even thought my children already do help out, reading them made me feel so much better about my decision to have them start helping out when I did. 

Until next time y'all...