Setting Daily Chores for a Moody Teenager

in #parenting6 years ago (edited)

Parenting is not a topic I usually write about, but there’s a first time for everything. My daughter who is turning 15 in October thinks she can go through life without doing any chores.

Wrong. With all the mood swings myself and @bingbabe have to endure on a constant basis, I thought I would take a stance and impose some, shock horror.. chores!

MoodyTeen.jpg

Source: https://pixabay.com/en/sad-girl-sadness-broken-heart-2042536/

I don’t want to reveal her real name on a public site, so for the sake of this article, she will be named ‘Holly’.

Holly is due to go to Paris on a school trip at the end of June 2018. That’s five weeks from now. She is asking £250 as pocket money, not a small amount but representative of what her friends are taking (or so she tells us). This is for a five day trip, so £50 a day.

I calculated at £10 a chore with 5 chores a week, over 5 weeks that would add up to £250, and placed this chart on the back of the kitchen door.

Is this what it takes for ‘bone idle’ Holly to do something, be it a small thing and not even every day?

Chores.jpg

Needless to say she was not very happy to see this and even less so when I declared, ‘If you miss a chore, I’ll be £10 richer so please go ahead and keep being lazy’.

Of course, she is my daughter and I won’t see her going short for the trip but something has to be done. I now need to figure out something to keep it going when she returns and I intend to do just that.

I did say to her, ‘You will thank me for doing this when you are 21 years old’; a statement that was vigorously rebuked.

We were all young once, and we all have to start doing some work. I don’t think I’m being mean, this is simply a preparation for what is to come.

All photographs were taken by myself unless otherwise indicated.


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Not bad but if she is using a Hoover you should get a Dyson and then just have her vacuum every other week. lol

LOL .. we have a dyson haha! good one.

I did NOT want to pay $300 for a vacuum but I think they are the best. lol
You might want to sign up for @dustsweeper.

That seems pretty reasonable to me. You even give her time off. Plus how dirty can her room really get in four days. Once you do the hard work on Monday it should be a cake walk on Friday. Especially since half the day she is probably in school and the other half she is sleeping. Stick to your guns! :)

Yes, less chores if you dont mess the room up, we will see what happens!

recognizable, I intend to try and teach my kids the same way. They have to learn that not everything is comming to them in a blink and that they indeed can do something in return. Don't get me wrong, I will give them anything, but it is a good thing for them to realize that nothing (or ar least not everything) comes for free... The profit of it later although they think otherwise at this moment :)

So far she's doing them! it seems to be working :)

:) Of course it is..... lol...

Parenting is a process of weaning off parental support. At birth they need everything and every year afterwards they need a little less. It is the job of the responsible parent to ensure their kids leave home with the skills they need to look after themselves and raise their own kids. Too many parents think they are doing the right thing by doing everything for their kids till they leave home. In fact they are only serving to de-skill their children before expecting them to go off into a world they can't deal with. Tough love is hard but essential.

I had to dry the dishes when I was a kid, the would never let me wash. I didnt like doing either but see the wisdom in it now.

Indeed....I'm the youngest of 6 so my parents had plenty of practice before I came along. I was never given chores but made to feel sensible and wise so I just gravitated towards doing things around the house because it was what sensible and wise people did. My bedroom was my responsibility. If I didn't clean it, it became horrid and smelly. When this happened and my friends commented on how disgusting my room was I learned a threshold and stayed beneath it from then on.

I agree with this! Children around me are involved in helping as soon as they are able and start to have their jobs from an early age. It's about sharing and about learning what's involved. Money isn't usually involved, but if there is something coming up, we put together a way they can earn some pocket money for what they need.

Can I move in with you? Plenty of spending money and no need to put up with The Weasel. (Heck, for that matter can The Weasel move in with you?) If you say yes, I'll even arrange my own transport. If you say yes to The Weasel, I'll arrange his, too!! (Fair warning -- full disclosure: @catweasel is a lot surlier than Holly.)

While it is a tempting offer, I will have to decline. She has done the chores to date and has not missed, and I'm sure your exaggerating about the cat. He's a kindly benevolent character really, your just not seeing his true colours yet :)

How about I arrange a "houseguest" for you while Holly is in Paris? If your first words to her when she returns aren't "Welcome home!! All is forgiven!!" I'll arrange the "houseguest's" passage back home.

Ah well you see, when she goes to Paris, myself and @bingbabe are intending to do a tour of Scotland, so that kind of thwarts that idea too. Humble apologies , I will try to do better in the future.

Not necessarily. I like Scotland. Probably from a previous life. (Besides, that accent is to die for.) I once told @catweasel if he had a Scottish accent, he would be perfect. The man of my dreams!! Live and learn.

She has it made literally. We had chores every day, you give her days off.
And you pay her for what she needs to do anyway. I guess we did get an allowance.
She is lucky you let her travel at such a young age by herself (without her parents). 🎈

well made post, parenting skills are important 👍 greetings :)

Don't forget to give an update, I'm curious to see if everything gets done in the end. I don't think it would be that bad if she got 10 - 20 Pounds less, but that's just my opinion :-)

That will be several weeks away, but so far so good.

Might be worth to write another article about ;) Btw, I've leased some more SP as you can see by my increased upvote.

Wow, that's some delegation, and thanks for the vote but you don't need to give me a full one :)

I feel like a kid who has just been given a new toy, gotta get the most out of it. At least today ;)

That's my best back to you!

You really didn't have to, but thanks! I'll have to adjust my autovote for you a little bit, but not by too much. I can still handle 1 upvote per day easily.

Didn't lease this SP purely for profit, going to use it for curation as well :)

Hey, you are doing a great job parenting her and with the chores list. I plan to do the same in another year with my now 4 year old. Kids do not like to be parent certain ways, but it is only when they themselves turn into parents that they realize that their parents were right.

Thanks! I'm trying :)

Mm you daughters have to most earn their pocket money by clearing leaves off the drive way or by generally helping with things. They get a bonus for great feedback from school; they are 5 and 7.

Interesting it seems to be having a positive impact on the youngest but we still struggling with the oldest arguing. I can't believe they can be so different at times.

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