the rewards of hard work

My kids now have chores. Finally. I had wondered how to implement tasks for the kids to complete without making us all crazy with nagging and threats. With some advice from a fellow mom, I came up with a list of things the kids can do to earn TV time, computer time, or just cold hard cash (up to  60 cents in a day, up to two times a week). This program has been fairly successful, as my kids are not usually guaranteed TV time everyday. We just don't have the TV on very often. With our new chore list they can make sure that they have to 60 minutes of TV in a day. Win-win.

Mostly on the list are simple things that I want my kids to do anyway. They get five minutes (or five cents) for taking their dishes over after dinner, rinsing them, and loading them in the dishwasher. They also get five minutes for brushing their teeth before bed. I feel like this gives them an easy way to have success and an easy way to make sure they are brushing their teeth. :) Both Drew and Lily also have two more difficult tasks on their list. Each of the more difficult tasks give them 15 minutes of TV time each. If they just do those two chores in a day, that's one whole TV show.

This system is great for many reasons. One of the best reasons being that if they don't do the task, they don't get the reward the next day. I don't have to nag because they know what needs to be done and they have the whole day to make sure it gets done. I do not have to be the bad guy either. They are in complete control over what chores they do and how much time in front of the TV they are rewarded with. One time Lily tried to start the "It's not fair" argument when she saw that Drew had earned more time than her. She quickly trailed off because she realized that she was in complete control of earning more time.

Now, just because I don't nag, doesn't mean that I don't gently remind them of their chores. If they are looking for something to do I might say, "Hey, you could just do your big chore really quick to make sure you get your TV time tomorrow."

Today I had to opportunity to remind Drew of his chore. I was making lunch and I had two dirty rags in the sink. I asked him to please take the rags to the laundry room for me. Then I added, "You know, your chore could be really easy right now, too. You could run upstairs and grab the basket of dirty laundry and bring it down to the laundry room with you right now."

Drew said, "No! I don't like to do my chores to earn special stuff. ...like TV....or computer....or deviled eggs! I don't even like deviled eggs!!"

I can't remember ever suggesting that deviled eggs were on the list of possible rewards. Which I suppose is a good thing because Drew doesn't even like them!