Chores

Do your kids do chores? Do they do them well? Do they drive you crazy with these chores to the point where you feel that it would be easier if you just did it yourself?

My kids have chores. I don't consider them to be too difficult. One person empties the dishwasher and sweeps the kitchen floor, one cleans the kitchen table and sweeps the dining room floor, one loads the dishwasher and cleans the sink area and one picks up and sweeps the family room. It is frustrating. Emma seems to have the inability to do any chore at all. She never touches the dishes because she breaks them, can't sweep well or wipe anything down. Anthony can take hours to fill the dishwasher, yes hours. Many times I have to go back over their work and reteach them how to do their chores properly. Laziness seems to be the biggest problem. I don't understand why they don't realize that if they just completed it quickly and proficiently the first time they would be done quickly. Larissa and Michelle seem to do the best for the most part.

Then when I ask for something else to get done you would think that I had asked for them to something extraordinary. I have days when I get sick and tired of the messy, cluttered house and we have a cleanathon. It needs done but it frustrates me so much. Example, we were picking up the family room and I found a lid to a kiddy cup. Michelle was heading to the garage so I asked her to put it in the sink along the way. As in she would be walking right past the sink. I watched her, she walked out of the room and put it in a box of other items. I walked up to the box and stopped Michelle as she was standing next to the sink and asked where the cup lid was. She said in the sink. I asked her to show me, Naturally she couldn't because she had dropped it in the box. Why? What was her reasoning since she was going past the sink?

Then we have their bedrooms. I don't clean their bedrooms, they are responsible for them. Emma and Michelle's favorite thing is to scatter clothing everywhere, both clean and dirty, and then when I tell them to pick it up they put it all in the laundry. I know it is clean because often there is folded clothing in the laundry. So I no longer do their laundry, they do their own. Emma tired of that and put most of her clothing in the Goodwill pile. She seemed to think that I would then buy her all new clothing. It doesn't work that way, she doesn't have much clothing. Actually she mostly has dresses since she wasn't willing to put those in the Goodwill pile. Now she asks Larissa often if she has any clothing that she has outgrown since it gets past down to her.

This is Emma and Michelle's bedroom, a major battle ground.

I told them to clean it. Told them that they were to stay in their room until it was cleaned. A few days later I checked on them. They said that they were done. They had boxes filled with all types of stuff, trash overflowing the trash can, clothing, shoes, toys and trash peeking out from under the desks and beds. I am not quite sure what they were doing up there but it wasn't their bedroom. I have talked the girls through the cleaning and sorting process many times. Pull out the clothing, separate the toys, books, shoes and trash. There is a place for everything. There is even a mostly empty closet with no clothing hung in it.

Yes, this was their closet on that day.

When I checked on the girls and gave them further instruction Michelle started having a fit telling me that I am demanding perfection. Well, anyone who knows me knows that I am not a perfectionist at house cleaning. I had her simply stand in the doorway and point out everything that was not where it belonged. Of course that caused more crying and yelling.

So, yes the kids in our house have chores. No, they don't get done very well and some days (ok, many days) I get so frustrated with it. Actually a short time ago Emma got fired from chores. She was excited about it and the other kids were saying it wasn't fair. Joselin was sitting there and she told the kids that getting fired form chores is not a good thing. If you don't contribute, you don't receive. Emma realized that when we later went out for sno cones, well, at least everyone who did their chores and contributed to the house.