Do you want your kids to pitch in a little more around the house? I used to do everything for my kids and I understand now that it was not to their benefit.  You see, I was raised by a single mother who wasn’t a good housekeeper and who never ever cooked for me. I literally remember waking up early starting in the 1st grade to make food for my younger brother and I. I didn’t want to be this mom. I wanted to be the mom who kept a beautiful home and cooked delicious meals. 

I succeeded at the cooking part, but keeping your home beautiful and in tip top shape is seriously difficult when you have 3 kids and you work from home full time. I figured out long ago that my kids needed to pitch in on this. It was important for our family that we have a nice, clean home, but it was more important that we have quality time together. If all of my time was spending cleaning up after everyone, I was going to miss out on that time. 

It took me a while, but I finally figured the key to motivating the kids to pitch in with the chores without paying them and without them complaining. 

Motivate Your Kids to Do Chores with These 3 Tips

Make it a Family Effort

Myself, my husband and all of the kids work together to do the household chores. Once your children see their parents or guardians all working together to keep the house up it becomes more of the norm. I’m a traditional type mom and I do a majority of the cooking and cleaning, but I also don’t believe that my husband should sit down while the rest of us are working. What does that teach the kids?

Start Young

I waited until my second child was about 5 to implement everyone in the house working on housework. He took it okay without too much complaining, but I can’t say the same for my oldest who wasn’t used to it at all. She is great now and she is the first one to get housework done, but it was a process.

We pick up after ourselves

We have a rule in our house that if you have made a mess, you clean it up right then and there. You leave a plate on the table? You carry it to the kitchen. You have a wrapper from your snack? You better carry it to the trash.