What chores do they do?

UGH!! The boys are driving me absolutely NUTS!! Every time I ask them to do some sort of chore, they grumble and groan and make up excuses. Tonight, I had it...I blew up! As soon as I walked in the door from work, there were shoes and book bags all over the living room. They had had sandwiches and chips and applesauce for dinner before I got home (I don't get off work until 6pm and they called to ask me what was for dinner so I let them make sandwiches.). They hadn't even put their dirty dishes in the dishwasher!!! UGH!! They're almost 11 yrs old, do you know how many chores I was doing by the time I was 11?! I made them pick up their mess and I started in on the laundry. All of our shirts get hung up to dry and all I did was ask them to bring their empty hangers out of their room and hang them up in the laundry room and fold the one basket of clothes. Isiah brought the hangers to the laundry room and just left them on the dryer so they were falling all over the floor...Michael took the basket of clothes to their room and then got in bed!! Oh man, I was SO mad. I told them to both go to bed and tomorrow when they get home they'd better fold that laundry and that they're NOT going to be playing any video games AT ALL. I went in the kitchen and was cleaning up in there and loading the dishwasher and just talking to myself "Y'all got it WAY TOO EASY! Y'all are gonna be doing more chores from now on...and video games? HA! No more video games!! I used to do SO many chores when I was y'alls age, you just don't know!" on and on I went talking to myself...LOL They probably think I've gone off the deep end. I am going to make a chore chart. So far, the only chores that they do now are cleaning their bathroom on Saturday and changing their sheets...and we usually have to tell them to do those each weekend. I am NOT having it anymore...Ant and I do everything else. They are almost 11 yrs old now, they need to start helping out more around the house. So...what chores do your kids do each week? Do you have a chore chart? Do you have to tell them every week to do those chores? Thanks for letting me vent everyone, I really needed it today!

 

Mine aren't that old yet, but I was definitely doing chores by that age.

I would say that room, sheets, and bathroom are definitely fair. With laundry, they need to assist with at least some parts. Like bringing it to the laundry area and putting it up.

My sister and I had to alternate nights with doing dishes and cleaning up the kitchen. Also, at that age, we were learning to make and prepare meals for the family under mom's supervision. By high school, we were each preparing dinner by ourselves, one night a week. (We took music lessons, so I cooked while mom took my sister and brother to their lessons. My sister cooked while I was at my lesson.) Mom would get ingredients for whatever we wanted, but we had to plan and cook it.

I would say the boys are also old enough to dust, spot clean windows and take out trash.

Maybe you and your dh need to just make a list of all the chores that need done in a week. Have a family meeting and divide them up. I often tell my kids that we all made the mess, and it's not fair to have just one person clean it up. Let them pick a few and assign them a few. Let them compromise. My sister and I had to clean the bathroom. Instead of alternating weeks like my parents originally planned, she would clean the toilet and the floor and I cleaned the tub and sink. It all got done.

Marissa

 

Well I feel like a big meanie now. My older two are 8 1/2 and 6. They have set chores every morning before school and evening jobs as well. On Saturday we have list of all the jobs to do in the house. We set aside one hour in the morning, put on the stereo, and all of us work like demons and get it done. The two year old helps too. The only moans I get are from DH! I say 'train them young'. My MIL did everything her boys and DH took a long time to understand that I am not there to do everything for him! Good luck.

 

We don't have a chore chart, though I've considered it a few times. And they're not great about keeping rooms clean, which is the only thing I find myself yelling about, really. BUT, they do quite a lot of chores. My boys (10 and 7) are usually the ones to take out the trash and recycle. My oldest 3 do dishes, though I sometimes do them or have my twins (4 1/2) empty everything in the dishwasher that's not glass or a sharp knife. My older three fold towels and their own laundry most of the time, and my twins can fold small towels and washcloths. My older three sweep, clean out the van, vacuum, put away groceries, clean their bathroom, water the garden and sometimes help weed it (but that's like pulling teeth). Trey (10) helps mow the lawn and use the weed trimmer. My 4 yos also help pick up, clean off the table, sort dirty laundry into baskets (whites, colors and towels), and put away shoes in the shoe rack that didn't make it there when they should have. That's all I can think of off hand, but it seems like there's more.

 

My DSS is 10. He usually takes out the trash, keeps his room clean, makes his bed, sets and clears the table (he puts leftovers in tupperware, etc). He does the dishes sometimes, but it takes him so much longer than me and he has really only one weekday off a month because of football, so I don't make him do them often.

He cleans up the toys from the yard (sometimes, his toys, sometimes he helps the younger kids). He folds and puts his laundry away sometimes (our nanny does the laundry and puts it away for him - I don't).

I'm thinking we need to add some chores, after reading some of these posts. The issue is, like I said, he's so busy with sports, he barely has time for homework during the week. He NEVER plays video games. He might watch 30 minutes of TV, if he's lucky.

ETA: He knows better than to grumble, but he'll often sigh or give me a look, like "Do I have to?" This age, we are struggling with backtalk quite a bit as it is, so the chores are just another thing...

 

Sigh...well, last night before I went to bed I made up a chore chart. They've always had to empty the dishwasher but they argue over who empties top and who does the bottom. I didn't assign the chores but I listed them out and put what days they need to be done, like Vacuum - Mon/Wed/Fri. I'm hoping this helps and DH saw it too so he knows about it (he works second shift so we don't get a lot of time during the day to talk). We'll see how it goes.