Today is officially the first day of summer vacation for my kids, so last night we had a family meeting to discuss their summertime responsibilities. In addition to establishing a set of guidelines for watching TV, we also set up a system for doing chores.
In fact, both of my kids are at the point where they'd like to start earning some money for chores that are "above and beyond" those tasks that I consider basic family participation, like cleaning up after yourself and making your bed. So we negotiated a per-chore fee of $0.50, with the possibility of a mid-summer "raise" to $0.75 per chore.
But here's the catch: They have to clean their rooms first! And I don't just mean the basic pick-up-after-yourself, throw-it-in-the-closet kind of cleaning, either. Before they can start doing some "extra" chores for money, my kids have agreed to spend a half-hour a day on some area of their bedrooms that needs to be cleaned and reorganized. (I suspect that cleaning under their beds is going to require three or four days, at the very least.)
I know it's only been one day, but so far, so good. How about you? How do you get your kids to do chores? Share your best strategies with our readers.
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