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Sat, 03 Jan 2009

Saturday Chores

Here in the Hall household we have a tradition of assigning chores by random lot. It works like this:

In an old plastic frosting container, we keep 18 Popsicle  sticks, each with a chore written on it. They range from "clean basement bathroom" to "vacuum stairs to second floor". There are three sticks labeled "Freebie", too. On Saturday mornings, each of the kids draws three sticks from the container. If we parents are feeling particularly mean, we might remove the "Freebie" sticks, first. If some of the easier chores have been done several weeks, but the more important ones are being neglected, we sometimes take out some of those easier chores.  

Generally, this works out pretty well.

Unfortunately, this morning we had a few issues with kids thinking that this system is unfairly administered. Usually, when this happens we start adding chores. Sometimes we do this by selecting a specific stick, and other times by having the rebellious child do the drawing. After a few rounds of this, the kids usually accept that they've got it pretty good and ought to stop while they're ahead.

If chores are finished by noon, the kids receive their allowances for the week. Then it's either free time or we do something as a family.