Sometimes we bring our struggles that we had growing up (and still continue to have) into our adult families. One thing that some adults in our home struggle with is noticing something that needs to be done, that is not specifically an assigned chore. Our kids are doing fairly well with chores, but there could be sharp knives laying on the floor and no one would pick them up because it is not their job (I may be slightly exaggerating in this example, but if so, not by much). How do we solve such a delima?
I got an idea one night about recognizing people for doing things they are not assigned. Then we could add up these accounts and have some type of party. So now we have a little chart to make tic marks for each example of "things noticed" and we have our first marshmallow roasting party scheduled when we reach 20 tic marks. We started yesterday and we already have 6 marks. Examples of things remembered are:
- putting away an unused knife of a sibling
- pushing chairs in under the table
- putting away a back pack that was left in the family room
My hope it that eventually (probably after years) we will have trained our children to look around them and see what can be done, instead of waiting for someone else to schedule them to do it.
1 comment:
That's a great idea! I've noticed the same thing around here; my oldest in particular is very literal about his assigned chores and does NOT think to go out of his way to do one iota extra!
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