Teaching your children to work provides them an opportunity to learn and grow. By giving your children responsibilities, they are learning to master new skills and grow to become independent, self confident individuals.In our household, all of my children, except Little Monster of course, take part in helping with our daily work load. Tasks are given based on the age and experience of each individual child. We do not pay our children for these tasks (chores) because I believe that chores are part of the responsibility of being part of a family. No, no one is going to be kicked out of the family for not doing their chores.
Eventually, when I feel my children are old enough, I will provide opportunities for them to regularly earn money, but for now, I provide them with everything they need and there is no need for extra money. That's not to say that they don't occasionally receive money, they do. Guess what they do with it? They blow it on the bubblegum machines we pass as we leave the market or spend it all on one thing they have enough money for but don't really need and will probably not care about a week from now. They haven't been taught the importance of saving it and waiting for additional money to be added to it to buy something they really want. My oldest daughter Red is at the age to begin learning this, and I probably could have started sooner, but I guess it's okay to say better late than never.
You may be wondering what types of jobs I am going to have my children do that they will be paid for. Well, that is something I will talk about at another time. There is a lot more to earning money than just having your child complete a task and then handing them money. There will be a system. Children must first learn responsibility. That begins with the daily chores.Consequences do come with not doing their chores. Usually, this means that while everyone else is relaxing and enjoying some free time, that individual will be doing their missed chores plus some additional chores. This usually applies more toward the older three since I am still monitoring The Princess and the Pea when they do any type of work for me.
One thing I DO NOT do is punish my children by taking away any type of scheduled family time. I believe that doing this permanently scars a child by making the child feel secluded and unloved. In the mind of a child they see themselves as not being part of the family if they are deprived of a family activity.
Stay tuned for a later post going more into detail some of the chores I give my children.
"Darling: says now just how pefect is this?? :)
ReplyDeleteI like this. When my son makes a mess of his clothes when he pulls one out, I always urge him to put them back in order. His prize is a few bucks and I teach him to save the money to buy another car for his hotwheels collection. He's very proud whenever he pays for the toy using his own money.
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