Tracie Shroyer

A follow up to our conversation on chores a few weeks back…
One thing to consider when choosing chores for your kids is how often you want to rotate the chores among kids.  It is common for families to rotate chores on a weekly basis, but I suggest that you consider coming up with a chore plan that works for your family and stick with it.  The longer one particular person is responsible for a chore, the better they will get at performing that task.  If a child knows for example, that it takes 5 minutes to empty the dishwasher, they can plan that into their day.  They also get to know where all of the dishes go, even those you don’t use on a daily basis.  There is a feeling of ownership over that chore, and everyone in the family comes to know whose chore it is…much better than arguing over whose turn it is!
In our home, the kids have decided that they like to keep their core chores for the entire school year.  They’ve found that they have to think about it a lot less this way, and I’ve found that they develop a sense of pride and accomplishment in a job well done.  If you think about it, in our lives as adults, isn’t it a huge boost to our egos when we can feel we’ve really done something well or mastered a task?
For the past 30 years or so, we’ve been fed a line as parents that we need to constantly complement our kids, to make sure they all feel like winners, in order to build their self esteem.  You know what?  Self esteem among children is among its lowest levels in years.  Telling kids they are winners isn’t doing it.  Teaching them how to work hard and to feel good about the work they do will.  It’s how our parents were raised, and how their parents were raised before them.
So if your kids aren’t doing chores on a regular basis right now, I encourage you to try it out.  Start small.  Make it fun, teach them by doing the chores together and maybe, just maybe your house will thank you for it!

Ah, the merry, carefree days of summer. This is the week I remembered all of the things I love about summer vacation. Warm, sunny days, kids playing outside and relaxed evenings eating dinner outdoors.
Last week… well, let’s just say that the first week of summer vacation has to be my most dreaded. Choruses of, “I’m bored,” backpacks spilling over with paper, broken crayons and half-empty glue bottles, and arguments galore are not my favorite way to start out the endless stretch in front of us.
But this is the third week. Routines have fallen into place, the kids have figured out how much time their chores will take and when the best time is to get them done and which sibling is the best for an afternoon of board games and which would rather play catch.
As idyllic as this all seems, I have a confession to make. I really had nothing to do with it. You see, I was sick this past week. I mean, three entire days of “stay away from mom” sick. The kids’ only instructions were to not disturb me. So they didn’t. I’m sure they had squabbles and were bored and argued, but they worked it all out on their own. And now life has settled into a beautiful routine. And I am so glad my kids and I have the whole summer ahead of us to enjoy.