The Job Factor

A few months ago, right before school let out for the summer, it occurred to me what was about to happen.  That after nine months of having one child in school all day and one child who still naps daily, that things were about to change.  The messes were about to double and the actual time to get house work done was about to get cut in half. I needed a system....a system called Start Pulling Your Weight Little Ones.

I have often heard parents admit that one of the hardest things about staying home with your kids is that your house is in constant chaos.  It's true.  We have an additional eight hours of games, toys, dirt, dust, thrashing, dolls, wreckage, toy dragging, piece chucking, painting, sandboxing, Honey Badgers on roller skates with trail mix, and books tossed aside only to be stepped on.  It also occurred to me that I am one person and I am done taking care of three.  I'm so lucky that Chris is perfectly capable of taking care of himself and his own messes.  Except when he makes fish tacos.  That's a greasy mess...which he denies.

So I came up with a system of jobs that the kiddos must help perform on a daily basis.  These jobs are non-optional and non-paying.  We want our kids to learn that everyone in a family pulls their weight to exist peacefully in a household.  We also want them to understand that when Mommy and Daddy aren't spending all their time doing chores, that we have more time for pleasurable activities like family swim day and ice cream outings.

So here is what Operation Start Pulling Your Weight Little Ones looks like...

Each morning I choose between two and four jobs that need to be completed.  We set them out and talk about what each one means.  Then the girls get to take turns picking one job at a time.  Some jobs happen every day, others rotate.  We also rotate who gets to pick first each day.  Do you see my craftiness in how cute these pictures are?  Who wouldn't want to vacuum with that guy? And that trash can...he seems fun.  The pictures, yes.  The jobs, not so much.  But my kids seem to be fooled into thinking the job will be cute as well and are pretty darn agreeable at the crack of dawn.  Later, when it's actually time to do the job, sometimes yes, sometimes no.

Things I have noticed...  One, my sanity is improving.  Attempting to cook dinner and set the table and hold Eliza and help Isis was driving me crazy.  Putting Eliza on table duty eliminates two of those four things.  Two, these kids take serious ownership of their jobs.  If Isis is folding clothes and Eliza steps near the process, Isis yells at her to get away from the jobsite.  Three, our house is actually somewhat clean.  I am the kind of person who does not attempt to start a job if I cannot complete it efficiently. Yup, so that's a big fat joke.  I do not want interruptions or I give up.  So needless to say, there have been a lot of jobs not getting done around here which I guess is why Chris had to clean our house for Mother's Day.  However...even if my kids don't do a fantastic job at their task, I can help them and keep them engaged which means they aren't messing something else up.

And lastly I have to say, holy cow they are pretty stinkin' good at some of these things.  Isis is definitely the winner of The Laundry Folding award.  She folds pretty close to perfect and has a good system for sorting piles. Then she starts yelling out who needs to carry what pile to what room and Eliza and I are suddenly scurrying worker ants being bossed around by the Queen.  Huh, I guess I see why she likes that job so much. Eliza, well, just come over and watch her one day.  She lays out every single piece of laundry and "folds" it into a wadded blob.  She then gently puts her blobs into a giant pile which she attempts to carry back to their respective dressers.  She usually drops half of them on the way and the unfolded blobs get shoved into a drawer. Redemption, it's usually the right dresser.  But know what?  She owns that job.  I have seen her fold laundry for twenty minutes before which is a pretty long stretch for a two year old.

Here are a few of the other "very cute" jobs happening around here.  Once the job has been performed, the kids remove it from the fridge and return it to the Job Basket which gives them a nice visual of accomplishment.

I've noticed a few other nice things happening since implementing Operation Start Pulling Your Weight Little Ones.  Children are approaching me with questions like, Mommy, can I help you with that?  Mommy, can I have an extra job? Sometimes I see extra pictures on the fridge because they have decided they want to help with something else.

The cold truth....sometimes they complain.  What looked fun at 8:00 is not looking so hot seven napless hours later.  Sometimes I think it would be smoother and cleaner if I did it myself. Buuut, spending an extra couple minutes each day to teach them how, it already paying off.  I am not a perfectionist by any means.  I am more of a Out of Sight, Out of Mind person. And when the dirty laundry is piling up, I would much rather have clean blobs shoved in a drawer, than dirty socks on my floor.  Oh, and capable kids.  That's nice too.