I have been struggling for a while with getting the boys to help out around the house. It used to be that before Jed and I were married and he was coming up to visit every other weekend, it was just a fun weekend full of play. Needless to say, the place they stayed(our current residence) was not getting cleaned regularly.
Just after we moved up to PG we instituted a job chart. We figured that since we are now living in the space and the boys would be around more often, they could share in the responsibility of cleaning up as well. Mainly, I just want them to clean their room and put their dirty clothes in the laundry. I don't think that is asking for too much. That didn't really work out well. Maybe because I didn't follow up with the boys to do their jobs, maybe because they really didn't want to do their jobs? Who knows. At any rate, I have become increasingly frustrated about the whole situation...Feeling like I do all of the work and get no thanks in return.
After talking about this with Jed, we decided to start giving allowance in return for services rendered. We figured they are are old enough that they need to start having some money of their own to spend as they please and it will teach them some responsibility with money. A couple of weeks ago, we discussed the rules with the boys and began the jobs for allowance plan. It was initially received well. They thought it was a great idea to be able to earn some money.
Here are the RULES we have instituted:
*There's no such thing as a free lunch; when money is spent, it is spent.
*There will be no advances on allowance; if you don't have the money to buy something you want, you will have to save for it.
*Your money is yours to use as you please; be responsible.
*If you loan to or borrow from a sibling it it your business deal and you will have to work it out between yourselves.
*Allowance is earned and if you don't hold up your end of the deal, there will be consequences.
*Extra jobs may be requested to earn extra allowance.
*You will only be asked to do the job once. After that it is your responsibility.
*All jobs should be done by Saturday night.
Here are their weekly jobs which by the way are super easy. If they lived with us full time, it would be a lot harder. They get the opportunity to earn one dollar for every year of their age.
William: $10.00 Weekly possible
Clean Room: bed made, dirty clothes in laundry, clean clothes folded and put away.
Take out the garbage: empty all garbage cans in kitchen, bedrooms, bathroom, dad's desk and laundry room.
Set table for Dinner: Thursday & Saturday.
Church clothes ready for Sunday: shirt and pants clean and ironed, shoes and belt found. (this is a constant fight every Sunday morning, ugh!!!)
Feed Iggy: Friday & Sunday.
Jens: $13.00 Weekly possible
Clean Room: bed made, dirty clothes in laundry, clean clothes folded and put away, vacuum.
Set table for Dinner: Friday & Sunday.
Sweep and Mop kitchen Floor
Church clothes ready for Sunday: shirts and pants clean and ironed, belt and shoes found.
Feed Iggy: Thursday & Saturday.
When it came down to payday last Thursday night, Jens had earned a whopping total of $4.00. He didn't' seem to care too much. William only earned $7.00 and cried about not getting the full amount. When we discussed taking responsibility for the jobs they are assigned it was protested that they had cousins over and were playing and it went on and on. Oh the DRAMA! Incidentally, they didn't do much better this last weekend. They hadn't done any of the "big" jobs and so we gave them a chance to redeem themselves since it was a long weekend and we had them until Monday night. Jed and I had an appointment and were going to be gone for a couple of hours, we told them if they got jobs done before we got back, they could earn the money for those jobs. When we got home...NADA. Nothing was done. I'm sure we will have more wailing and gnashing of teeth from Will this week on payday. Jens doesn't seem to care. So, do we keep trying this and hope it starts to work or do we become more rigid and come up with a different plan? Really, we just want them to take some responsibility and learn how to do things without being asked. How do you teach that to kids who don't get it?
2 comments:
This is a tough one. Not that I have the answers. I think any plan can be a good one. Maybe you just have to do it for few months to get a more acurate view. Maybe Jens will care when he sees William buy something cool. Maybe William will figure it out. If it doesn't seem to be working after a few months, try something new, however, I applaud you for coming up with a good plan and sticking to it.
Beat them.
Nah, just kidding! I don't have any idea, but I am interested to see where this goes. I'm with Carrie, keep it going for a few months.
Maybe sign a contract with them? Oooh, check out the parenting with love and logic stuff. I think they had info on this but I ignored it since it didn't really seem to apply to me yet.
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