~Bona Vita~

Customize your children’s chores.  They can become an expert in one or two particular areas.  You and your children will always know who is responsible for a particular chore.  This will end the “it’s not my turn” or “I did that last time” mentality.

One of my sons is the sanitary engineer of the house. Every morning he empties and re-lines the waste baskets throughout our home. This allows me to be certain that every day we start out with fresh containers. He has taken ownership of this position. There may be an occasion where he forgets to complete his job, but a gentle reminder is all that is needed.

My younger daughter is responsible for stocking  essential products in our bathrooms. Every morning she checks the supplies and makes certain that each bathroom has the appropriate paper, soap and shampoo products that are needed.  She restocks from a supply that we keep in the garage and communicates with me when I need to purchase additional products.

In the evening, after dinner, one of my sons vacuums the hardwood and tile throughout the main floor of our home. It only takes him about 10 minutes and eases a housekeeping burden during a very busy time of my day.

I call upon my children to assist me in various and random areas during the day. All of them assist me in the kitchen as sous chefs, help me pick up toys, put away laundry, and keep their own rooms neat. However, customizing some of their chores has certainly been beneficial in our home. It has eliminated unnecessary negative conversations:

• “Who’s responsibility was it to empty the trash in the schoolroom?”
• “Who’s turn is it to empty the dishwasher?”
• “Could one of you vacuum under the dining room table?”
• etc.

Customizing chores has allowed me to train my children in certain skills. For instance, my son knows that one cannot run a vacuum along a white floor board. He also understands that one must actually move furniture when you vacuum and not simply run into the chair legs with the vacuum.

Our children have learned the importance of finishing a job correctly the first time. It actually saves energy. If one does not line the waste basket after emptying it, he then must clean it out as well.

Children actually enjoy finishing tasks correctly. They do not like being nagged. Let’s face it: nagging rarely works well. So give them tasks and jobs in which they can be trained and become experts. I even pay my children for their terrific work.

Discuss your expectations with your children concerning their particular responsibilities and teach them to follow through on their jobs. You will have a more peaceful home (and a little neater one as well!).

“Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings; he will not serve before obscure men.”  –Proverbs 22:29

Wikipedia defines a sous-chef de cuisine as  the “direct assistant of the executive chef…”.   About.com:Restauranting goes on to explain that a sous-chef is “directly involved with food production…”.  As I prepare a meal, I enlist one of my children to be my sous-chef.  I have actually taken to using the term incorrectly as a verb – “I need someone to sous for me!”.  The point is my children know exactly what that means and one of them will always come to the kitchen and assist me.

My sous-chef needs vary from day to day.  I may need vegetables cut up, fruit arranged on a platter, rice started, or the table set.  I usually prepare the dinner plates, as they  would be served in a restaurant, and then place them on the table.   Sometimes my sous-chef just helps me with this task.  My children learn early on how to arrange a meal on a plate in an attractive manner.

The sous-chef’s responsibilities in our house are directly related to the age of my children.  My youngest children can set the table correctly and they enjoy stirring whatever marinate I am preparing.  They are terrrific at unwrapping bouillon cubes!  My 11-year-old daughter loves to be creative when she sets the table, including folding the napkins into ”candles” or “swans”.  She has learned to help me cut up vegetables and fruit and makes a great chocolate pudding for one of my trifles.   My older daughters can prepare delicious rice.  This is a tremendous help as I serve rice on many occasions.  They actually can prepare complete meals and call for their own sous-chef when needed.   My older sons’ sous-chef responsibilities range from pouring drinks to grilling chicken.

From an early age, children enjoy helping in the kitchen.  Utilizing their energy and training them in age-appropriate kitchen skills will allow you to enjoy cooking in a less stressful manner.

“Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” – Proverbs 22:6

Children are so  malleable.  In general, they desire to please their parents.  However, it is a fallen world and they need constant direction, discipline and training.  This is such a deep topic, open to discussion and controversy.  Today I am just going to graze the surface and talk about children and chores, particularly in regards to their bedrooms.

Children, if given the choice, would opt to live in a lovely, uncluttered environment.  They prefer a beautiful world as much as anyone.  They simply need to understand how to achieve this.   They also need to understand why they should help around their house.  Here the issues of gratitude and respect need to be discussed.  Someone, their father or mother or  perhaps both, is working very hard to provide a lovely home for them.  A child can learn early on to demonstrate thankfulness by simply  appreciating their home and doing their part to maintain it.

Start small…expect them to keep their bedrooms clean and chaos free.  This training is easily accomplished if you start when your children are young. However, even the habits of your older children can be modified.

Go through your children’s rooms with them.  Be relentless.  Throw unwanted trash and even “treasures” away.  This will be painful at first.  Make files for special pictures and projects that need to be saved forever.  However, your children must learn that certain items, probably most, are not worthy of saving.  You also must model this in your life.  They will catch the spirit.  Go through their clothes and triage . . . clothes to wear, clothes to discard and clothes to pass on.  Repeat this process with toys and sporting equipment.   Leave no corner untouched.  Look under the bed, as this is a haven for trash and treasures.  If you need to utilize the space under the bed,  use containers to control and manage this area.  The closet floor and shelves should also be de-cluttered and organized.

Now, actually clean the bedroom with your child.  Dust and vacuum.  Don’t forget the floor boards and the window sills.  Show your kids how to make their rooms shine and they will love it.   Make sure they know when to change their linens.  Train your children to make their beds each morning.  A presentable bedroom begins with a bed that is made.  No one likes to end their day by crawling into an unmade bed.  Yuck.

This will be an on-going process.  You will have to continually train your children.  Your expectations should be age-appropriate, but the key is to have expectations.  Everyone will benefit.  Your family will be blessed by living in a neat environment.

“Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” –Proverbs 22:6