I’m tired of being the only one doing the clean up. My kids are more and more capable every day, so I decided to come up with a few rules that will teach the kids how to help out around the house.
I didn’t want to do too many, so I just picked five to start with. Last night, I called a family meeting — a first for us — and laid down the law. Here are the rules:
1.Set the table before dinner.
2. Take your dish to the sink after dinner.
3. We will eat dinner at the table and not the bar. (I’m sure most people probably do this, but we have been really lax about it, mostly due to the open concept layout of our kitchen/living room.)
4. No TV during dinner.
5. Make your bed and pick up your room. (Poor word choice here. Molly said her room was too heavy to pick up).
I taped the rules up in the kitchen. Today was the first day with our new set of rules. Without being asked, Molly (5) cleaned her room and made her bed. I say that’s a good start. Not quite three, Charlie’s kind of young for the rules, but he is not exempt. I want to make sure I raise a boy who knows how to clean up after himself. So, I will tailor them slightly for him until he can do more.
And this is not an allowance situation either. I don’t get paid to do it, so nobody else will either.
Looking forward to dinner at the table tonight. We’ll see how it goes with the table-setting and dishes.
Oh – and this is funny. My daughter added a 6th rule to the bottom of the list. It says “We need a cat.”
You gotta laugh. What rules do you live by?
P.S. Motherhood Moment #6 is one of the many reasons we don’t have a cat.
Love it! But DO NOT get a cat!!!