In general, the responsibilities charts have been working really well. Yesterday for the first time maybe ever, the kids all came in from the bus and put their things away appropriately without many reminders!
It has been much easier for the kids to get on board taking care of their own things, none of these tasks are new, and they get that they should have been doing them all along.
My 2nd grader has eagerly jumped right in to his "family responsibility" and loves taking out the recycling and is eager to start with the "extra tasks" to earn some money (coming soon to a blog near you!). Being in the "eager to please and help" phase has its advantages.
My 7th grader had a bit of a fit when she realized that she was helping clear the table and do dishes every day. I told her that we could talk about alternating jobs next week if she ends up hating it. There was a lot of back and forth about this during dinner and honestly I think I should have ignored the grumbling more. In the end it took a whopping five minutes and she did a great job!
My 5th grader got home from dance at 8:30pm and I wanted her to get to sleep so she didn't have time to do her "family responsibility." I need to work with her on getting in this habit before dance and balancing her need for some down time. I may move her job next week to something that can be done mostly during the weekend.
On the morning of the third day, both my 5th and 7th grader didn't complete a personal responsibility. I already went into our screen time account (free through Apple) and took away a 1/2 hour of screen time for today. When I texted my 7th grader to let her know (she can check her phone on breaks), her response was "Ok I understand." What??? OMG!! I may screenshot, print and frame that! No snark at all. 📷
All in all, project "get my kids to take responsibility for our home" is off to a good start!
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