Getting children to help with chores

Hi Anurima, Keeping the chore simple and not expecting perfection work for me. sometimes doing the chore along with my son (sharing the work), convinces him to do it. telling him that he is the only help i have got motivates him. I use every opportunity to say that as family members we all need to share the work to help each other. My son is 10. The following are some the chores he does. you can give your children some chores that are age appropriate. I have 2 sets of chores. one is the repetitive set of chores (repetitive within a week) which i keep changing after a week and another is need-basis weekend chores. repetitive chores are taking out the trash, setting up the table, filling water in jug, Putting away the toys (i have labelled the boxes and toys' drawers with names so it's easy to find the tray and dump the toys in) and shelving the books (I have categorized our book shelf based on genre. but usually the books don't go to the right place which i can live with instead of seeing them lying all over the house), washing his plate (it has never been perfect but it has at least become a habit for him), refilling dog food (uses a measuring cup to give the right amount) and water for dog. (i use 2 bowls for water so while refilling water he uses the clean one and removes the old one and push it for wash), walking the dog (along with me as i am planning to delegate this work to him later). The need-basis weekend chores - if i'm bathing the dog on weekends, he joins me in watering with hose and also in blow drying and brushing her, dusting furniture, separating the laundry into white clothes, light colored and dark colored clothes (only on weekends he gets time), folding towels, socks, wash cloths, his t shirts and shorts, sweeping the front yard (once in a while), helping in washing and vacuuming the car (if we do it at home instead of car wash), helping in carrying the groceries from car, baking together. There are some chores which he has to do every day- mostly his own work. putting his shoes away in shoe rack, school bag in its hook, putting away dirty uniform / clothes for wash, putting his snack and lunch boxes for wash, packing his backpack for the next day, turning off the lights, fans/ac, water heater after use etc. I also had to control his screen time. So I give him a star for each of these compulsory chores and for each star he gets 5 min of ipad time. at the max he gets 10 stars and he gets to use ipad for the number of stars. He also gets a negative stars for not doing these compulsory chores. So i get these chores done in no time immediately after coming from school. But sometimes i feel guilty that I am bribing him to do his own job. But for now i dont have to repeat everyday. Hope the above list helps.

Hi Anurima! How r u!Carol has shared some amazing tips. For me what has been working so far is praise. I praise my kids for any help they offer. A big hug and a kiss on forehead motivates them to do more. And ofcourse there is competition between girls who will win more praise and hugs from Mom. Of late I am without a full time maid , so they know my plight and have been helping me willingly. Also If I feel they are tired or in a bad mood, I don't expect them to help me. I believe bribing might work on some days but not all. Secondly I feel, it's more of making them realize their role and responsibilities which should come from within. Hope this helps!

Hi Anurima, most of the task and tips already been shared by parents in their comment one more thing I would like to add that these chores assigned to them in such a manner so that they not feel that you are taking work from them because some of these chores they find interesting and doing it willingly where some of them are boring to them.