Developing Effective Parenting Skills

How to Get Children to Cooperate in Doing Chores

Sometimes parenting can have it's challenges. One area that parents often struggle with is getting children to cooperate and do chores around the home. This is a time when children use 'selective listening' to their advantage, and parents resort to nagging and threatening to get a willing response - and that often results in more frustration for parents

Getting children to do chores is not just to make their parents life easier, but to teach them responsibility and self-discipline. Nagging them is not an effective way to teach them these important lessons. Here are a couple of strategies that can be used to avoid getting frustrated and nagging your kids.

Sit down with your children and talk about age-appropriate chores with them. To be successful in training a child in the responsibility of doing chores there are two important factors. Firstly to find a system that keeps the child accountable and secondly that they are motivated by a reward system set in place for when they have completed their tasks. Remember to be realistic in your expectations of what your kids can do. A chore that needs to be done once or twice a week is more appropriate than every day. Typical chores that children can do for example might be helping with the dishes, setting the table, cleaning their room and taking out the garbage.

Creating a chore chart can be very effective in helping you and your children keep track of tasks accomplished and inspiring and motivating by checking off completed tasks. Rather than imposing a chore chart on your children, make the activity of creating the chart fun. At the same time as discussing chores, it is also important to discuss awards for completing all the chores in the week. Make sure your children understand that the reward is for all the tasks accomplished, and no reward will be forthcoming if the tasks are not done. Make clear also what the consequences of not completing tasks will be also. Clear expectations lead to effective child discipline in all areas.

There are several ways that you can reward your children. Giving them a monetary allowance for a week completed chores not only can be an effective incentive, but can be used to teach them about managing money, spending and saving. An allowance needs to be age appropriate for children. A good suggestion is that the child has $0.50 for each year of their life. Using this method, the child of eight could earn four dollars each week.

Alternatively a non-monetary reward system can easily be created.It is important that the child understands what the reward system is that you decide. For example, for successfully completing a week's chores on the chart, the child could be taken on a special outing or treat.

Whatever system you as a parent in place remember to be consistent and firm in the expectations and carrying out the rewards.There also needs to be complete clarity and understanding about the consequences of not completing the chores. Consistency in child discipline and clear expectations provide the road to success.