How old where your kids when they really started doing chores? Mine does her own dishes and picks up after herself, but I'm thinking at five it's time to start putting her to work.
Well, guess I have to start with the wife first. She is going to be 60 and needs to start doing her chores first. Seriously, Mly kids had some things to do like clean their rooms and such in grade school, mid 80s. And of course gunshow detail on the weekends. Load stuff, unload at the location. Watch the tables. Grandparents had them working in ghe garden by then also. We had them working with county fair show animals. Pigs mostly, and some sheep. Feeding, cleaning pens, weighing and bathing their animals. Now they have their own garden planted and I have to help. Sorry for the poor photo. Kinda late in the evening. A pick of half the garden in mid Oct. The other half onlyhas a few test rows planted. Worms giving them lell.
She takes care of her plants, but my thought is it's time she started doing more. I think she's bored and idle hands...
living on a farm, we started at a very young age. If you could pick up a hoe you had to work. no pun intended. At nine i had the job of delivering milk door to door by horse drawn wagon. 0500 hours before school. farm chores after school. I can say i miss those days.
Doing my dishes and picking up after me? She's now feeding the dogs and cleaning up after them every night. She keeps complaining, I keep telling her "90% of life is doing what you don't want to do, get used to it now and you won't have a problem when you get older.". She just sighs and does what she's supposed to. I think I'm bumming her out.
Geez...that statement bummed me out !! ...but, it is the truth ! Good job Dad... How about an allowance...or even a little gift to know you appreciate the hard work... My daughter liked to help around the house, and we made it fun because she saw us pulling the duty too. Nobody likes feeling like a servant, while others sit and give orders. When it was time to get stuff done, we included her, but always worked besides her.
I'm right there next to her. I lead by example, complete with sighs and a negative disposition. "But Honey I don't want to change diapers" "Dad, life is 90%..." She has an allowance of sorts. We give her the change from every transaction we make. She keep it in her bank, and once the bank fills up we cash in and let her pick something out.
I'm in there with Terry. We lived on the farm. Chores in the morning, chores in the evening, school in the middle. And this was monday-friday. Saturday was chores in the morning, chores in the evening, and farm work in the middle. Sunday was chores in the morning, church, then chores in the evening. Our allowence was food to eat, clothes to wear, and a roof over our head. I wouldnt take nothing for my upbringing.
I guess I led a good life, only cut the yard grass, and screwed off the rest of the time. My kids grew up while I was in the Army and seldom did chores except taking out the kitchen garbage and cleaning their rooms. Their allowance was based on school grades. All A's earned a 100% bonus, would liked to have paid it often but I seldom had to pay the bonus .
My three are all grown now. 2 girls (23 & 21) and 1 boy (18). Everybody has chores, always have. My daughters help their mom, house cleaning, dishes, cooking, laundry. My son helps me, garbage, pets (dogs, cats, fish), car maintenance (I take care of me & the wife, he takes care of him and his sisters,) yard, around the house fix-its, and of course gun maintenance. As for allowance, we gave each of them the same choice, if I gave them an allowance that's all they'd get. On the other hand, if they did their chores, and whatever else their mother and me asked them to do, when we ask them to do it, I'd give them what they need when they need it. All 3 of them opted for the latter.
We got a weekly allowance only after "the boss" signed off on a hard copy list of chores for the week...I'm the oldest of five, and we worked the list according to capability...with the youngest getting the easy chores.
I'm going to work something out in terms of an allowance. She will walk up to me and say "Dad, when you get paid again can you take me to the store and by me a dress?". I'm thinking of outlining what I will pay for jobs she can do and allow her to decide what she wants to do and how.
I offered her $25 to clean up dog poop. She started but could not stop vomiting (Damn it was cute) . I'm only paying her $5. My wife and I are working out a "job list" with the value for each job. I'm also trying to teach her with little/no work/responsibility you won't get paid much. If she's happy doing little an getting little it's fine, we need a world of quality people working those sorts of jobs. I guess I'm trying to teach her we are a society and all of us are valuable in maintaining the value of our culture. CEO, trash man, it takes us all to make this thing work, and how much money you make is not a testament to your value as a person.
So I took her to buy dog food. She told me "Dad, I can't lift the big bags. You should buy it, but then you have to do it for a few days till it gets not heavy.". I bough the five pound bag and solved that problem. That little girl is to smart. She's going to make a man very miserable someday.
You should have bought the big bag then took it home and split it into smaller bags... You would have saved money for the bulk buy and still gave her something easy to handle. C'mon Dad...your smarter than that...!!
He's smarter than that, but doesn't have much choice what with being wrapped around that little finger ...
I'm doing one better, I'm buying a trash can that we will keep the food in and she can scoop it out and take multiple trips. And there is the issue. She really makes me want to feed the dogs. Last night she ran up to me for no reason and gave me a hug. I melted, I was about ready to give her my wallet and tell her to go nuts. Girls are always women, that's something I'm learning.
That's what we did...got a plastic floor model dog food container. Just open and drop the bag in...unzip and use scoop to dish it out... When bag is empty, toss and drop new bag in. Way to go Dad !
