Chores

Well, I must say that since our weekend away (only one week now) I have been feeling very frustrated with my children and other issues and have been quite snappy and not very . . . um . . . lets say upbeat. So I have decided that instead of being frustrated and irritable I am going to try chores. Each of my kids have a daily chores (simple stuff - one takes out the trash, one empties the silverware from the dishwasher and one wipes down the countertops and table at the end of the day) and along with that they will each have a dog job (daily) and an outside job (every other day) then they will empty the car and all the trash cans and wipe down walls on Saturday. It seems to be working fairly well. If they do their jobs all week long there will be a treat on Saturday afternoon. If they do all their Saturday jobs then we will go to the park (or somewhere else fun for them) Saturday afternoon. In addition, if - like tonight - they are completely not listening (when I put them to bed or other times) instead of being frustrated I will put them to work. Tonight, I made them straighten the rooms, vacuum the family and living room, put away laundry and clean up the girls room. Not only were my nighttime chores shorter, but they got more tired and went right to sleep. I am hoping this might restore some sort of order to our house, but we shall see.