From the article: Getting Tweens to Help with Household Chores
The house is a mess, dinner awaits, and the dog needs to be walked. Your household chores have piled up around you and you need some serious help. But who do you turn to? Your tween, perhaps? Is your tween responsible for helping out around the house, or chipping in on finishing household chores? Does he/she understand that bathrooms don't just clean themselves and that pets need to be fed and cared for?
What household chores have you assigned to your tween and how do you get your tween to help out around the house?
Share Your ExperiencesRewards
- I never got paid for doing chores. Turns out, I still don't. But I like to reward myself when I get a lot accomplished around the house, even if my reward is watching 30 minutes of my favorite TV show. Since I reward myself, rewarding the kids seems like a fair balance.
- —Guest Apryl
Chores for My Tween Grandchildren
- When my grandchildren who are tweens stay over, they enjoy helping me cook and setting the table. They really like choosing the dishes and creating a centerpiece for the table. They also help me clear up. What they hate to do is pick up! But I make them do that anyway. I think tweens really do better with chores that have a creative aspect or let them do something independently. That doesn't mean that we should let them off the hook for the more mundane tasks.
- —SusanAdcox
Chores for Tweens
- As tweens, we expected our daughters to contribute to a regular routine of kitchen clean-up. One would be responsible for setting and clearing the table, while the other had to load the dishwasher and wash the dishes. We alternated weeks. We also expected them to help "as needed" - tidying up their rooms and bathroom, assisting with pet care, vacuuming, etc.
- —Guest Pam
An Old-Fashioned Allowance?
- Is it old-fashioned to give an allowance? That is how we have always handled getting kids to do their chores, which includes doing the dishes, setting/clearing the table, vacuuming/dusting, taking out the trash, and taking care of the dogs. With three kids, they alternated duties every day.
- —FamilyCrafts
Chores Are a Work in Progress
- I find that making tweens do chores is an ongoing process. Not because they resist (although sometimes they do) but because they are constantly capable of more. Once they have mastered a task, they often can graduate to a more difficult task and leave the easy jobs for the younger siblings, which of course they are not always happy about. But often things get into comfortable routines. And so sometimes as a mom I need reminding to up the ante every so often for them and teach them to do more jobs.
- —LaureenBrunelli
My Tween's Chores
- My tween helps wash and wax the cars, take care of the family pets (cat and 5 fish), and set and clear the dinner table. For the most part, he remembers, but I reward him with mini-chocolate bars after dinner if he finished everything he was supposed to do.
- —Guest SarahZee
