You are a young mother of three school aged children. While they enjoy going to after school activities like ballet, football and soccer, it has become increasingly difficult in getting them to do chores around your home. Motivating children, whether they are small children or older children, has been the part of parenting that we know needs to be done, but we could preferably do without.
This article will help you with some ideas of how to motivate and get your children involved with home cleaning tasks.
Give Them a Reward
Whether they choose to admit or not, every child likes to be rewarded for what they. Have a special reward for each chore done by your child. There may be a greater reward for a chore that takes more time or one that they absolutely dread doing. By rewarding your child after a task has been done, you will teach them responsibility, but also that good things come to those who work for it.
Start Them out Early with Good Cleaning Habits
As soon as you begin to see your child picking up things around your home, is the time to start them with home cleaning tasks. Starting your child out early with home cleaning will allow them to form good habits of keeping their environment clean. As they grow and even go off to college, they will carry these good habits with them that you started forming with them at an early age. Starting early is a great way of getting kids involved with chores and helping them to understand the importance of home cleaning tasks. There is a recent article where a cleaning service in columbus talks about the art of keeping a clean home.
Begin with Chores they Love Doing
As you begin to see your child wanting to help dad with washing the car, or keeping their room clean, begin by giving this particular daily chore first. When a child enjoys a chore, they will not mind doing it every day. As they grow more and more and learn about being responsible, they will begin to want to do more. Start simple and advance to higher levels as they grow older and become more comfortable with doing chores.
Don’t Allow them to do Things they Enjoy Until After the Chores are Done
Children need structure in order to be successful in life. Teaching them good habits will help to build upon that structure and give them the knowledge of how to prioritize. Let your children know that they must do their daily chores before going outside to play or before they can continue in their after school activities that they love so much. While you do not want to feel like they are in prison, they must understand that chores are a main priority and must be done before anything else.
Compliment them
Everyone loves to be complimented and children are no different. When your child begins and finishes their chores, give them compliments to let them know how proud you are of them.You may even want to brag to grandma and grandpa about how their grandkids performed their chores and did a job well done. When children hear compliments by and others, it builds their self esteem and makes them feel worthy. And when children feel worthy, they feel good inside and want to do more.
Talk to Them in an Age Appropriate Way about the Importance of Doing Home Cleaning Tasks
If we are really being honest, nobody enjoys doing home cleaning tasks. They are a part of life, however, that must be done in order to keep a neat and tidy home. Explain to your child in an age appropriate way, the importance of doing their home cleaning tasks. Let them know that this will only make them stronger and more mature and responsible for the things in life that they will later have to deal with. Give your children the benefits of keeping a beautiful, well organized and clean home. As they begin to do chores, it will become easier for them and they will realize how good they actually feel in a cleaner environment.
Remember that kids are just little people. They want to do things, but may need motivation just like we do as adults. Remember to compliment your child, reward them, only allow them to do activities they enjoy after their home cleaning tasks are done and start them out doing cleaning chores from an early age as to develop good cleaning habits. All of these helpful tips will leave you with confident kids who know that they played an important role in keeping their home clean and well organized.
