The Chore of Chores: Getting Your Kids To Help Out When They Don't Want To

Credit To

Getting the kids to complete their chores is an incredibly common argument among families far and
wide. You may ask your children repeatedly to do something on a certain day and at a certain time,
but there’s always a reason why they can’t. They’ll say that they’ll do it later or just flat out refuse,
leaving you struggling to do everything around the house. Instead of accepting the situation the way it
is or nagging your kids until you’re blue in the face, you need to give them some motivation. With that
in mind, here are four ways to get your kids to do their chores.

Give Them A Choice

No one likes being told what to do, but children hate it especially, regardless of their age. For this
reason, you might receive less resistance from your kids if you give them some choice and freedom.
Instead of telling your kids what chores they need to do and when they need to do them, give them
a list of everything that needs to get done and see if they can work it out among themselves. If they
can’t do this fairly, then suggest they pick chores out of a hat instead.

Set Them Time Limits

Of course, even when you let your kids choose for themselves when to work, there are still going to be
times when they don’t want to at all. To remedy this, you should time your children and offer a
punishment if the chore remains uncompleted. For example, if one of your children refuses to take the
garbage out, you could say that it needs to be done in twenty minutes, or they’ll have to go to bed
earlier. This way, they’ll lose something by not working, which they won’t enjoy.

Credit To

Use A Reward System

Negative reinforcement can convince your children to get their work done, but, more often than not, a
reward works much better. This is because it offers an incentive, which is much more motivational
than a potential punishment. With that in mind, you may want to integrate your childrens’ chores with
some sort of reward system. This could be a chart that you keep on the fridge or an online platform,
like Goalsetter. You choose whether you pay per week or per chore.

Never Punish Using Chores

Although you can punish your children for not completing their chores, you should never use chores
themselves as a punishment for bad behavior. If one of your children does something wrong, you
shouldn’t tell them to clean the car or wash the dishes as a consequence. This shows chores to be
something negative, which will make your children not want to do them. The only time this is
appropriate is when a child is making up for doing something bad to a sibling.

Getting your children to complete chores is a great way to teach responsibility and
improve your work and family life balance. Unfortunately, few children are thrilled about the prospect
of getting their hands dirty. If you’re struggling to get your kids to help out, then consider the advice
above.