Disciplining Your Young Child to Teen- With Chores

The children in my family all have basic chores that they have to complete each day.  They do these chores because they are part of our family.  They do not get paid for these basic chores.  An example is that I load the dishwasher, but one of the kids unloads it and puts it away or when I come home from grocery shopping everyone is expected to pitch in to get groceries put away.  These are expected chores and are the cost of living in our home, just as taxes are your cost for living in your country.

If a child wants money, they can do chores above and beyond what is expected, but we also use chores as discipline.   You can refer to my chore chart for some ideas of age appropriate tasks.

Age Appropriate Chores

Last week, one of my kids didn't get off the school bus.  I phoned their cell and no answer.  I phoned the school and they said my child got onto the bus and the bus was on time.  I phoned my child again with no answer and I texted.   Nothing.  An hour and a half later, I get a text back, "Oh, I got off on a different stop to hang out with a friend".  I had not been told where they were going or when they would be back, which is a rule in our house.  The punishment for this was $5.00 worth of chores.  I made up a list of chores and values.  My child is grounded until she completes $5.00 worth of chores.  This means no cell phone, no tv, no computer games, no computer except for homework that is to be done in the kitchen with me supervising.

This is very effective for my kids.  They tend to finish the extra chores as quickly as possible.

The list was:


Wash and dry all bedding and put it back on the beds.   $1.00
Wash/dry/fold all dirty towels                                             .25
Take full garbage outside to can                                          .25
Remove pet food from bowls, wash, dry bowls then refill  .25
Vacuum entire upstairs                                                       1.00
Wipe baseboards in entire house                                         1.00
Sweep front and back entry way inside and out                  .75
Take everything out of kitchen island, wipe inside
cabinet, then return everything                                            1.00
Remove everything from china cabinet, wipe cabinet
and return everything                                                           1.00
Scrub 2 toilets and 2 tubs in the house                                 1.00


I try to give them a variety that they can choose from, but it's all less then desirable jobs.  All jobs must get a parental sign off on completion or it didn't happen.


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