3 Ways To Convince Your Kids To Do Chores

If you’re a parent to kids or teenagers, and you live on this planet, you know how agonizing it can be trying to convince your kids to pitch in with chores or housework. You can argue, you can fight, you can plead, and you can threaten, but it’s always the same thing, right? Wrong!

With a few key communication skills and incentives among other techniques, negotiating with your kids to help out around the house can be a cinch! Check out our 3 top tips for convincing your kids to do chores:

1. Make it fun

Housework doesn’t have to be a giant bore, you know. In fact, chores can sometimes even be a little fun – imagine that! You can make everyone in your household, not just the kiddies, look more forward to housework time by making it a challenge or a game. How about the first person to finish his or her chore(s) gets to select the film for family movie night? You can even hide little prizes like favorite candies or movie tickets around the house for your kids to find while they do their chores. Consider doing chores together as a family activity to make it social! Making the whole thing fun will put a new spin on chore time, and will create a long lasting, more positive attitude about housework in general.

2. Do NOT use chores as punishment

By setting up chores as punishments, you are setting a model by which your kids will correlate doing chores with being punished. And trust us, when you try to get them to do their chores later, they’ll remember that connection! Instead, chores should simply be a task, a task that everyone as to do in your family, just like brushing your teeth or tying your shoelaces. There should not be an opportunity for kids to create a negative connotation with housework, as it will only make them more resistant.

3. Make housework predictable

There’s nothing more frustrating to a kid that having housework sprung on you unexpectedly. That said, you can make housework easier to swallow by setting a schedule to keep things predictable. Set a certain time or times aside during each week for specific chores, that way your kids can anticipate and expect doing their chores, as well as learn how to manage time, which is another great skill to teach your children. Plus, the structure will make things less complicated for everyone, and will ensure that housework and chores get done on time, every time.

Do you have any particular techniques that work around your house? Tell us in the comments!