Many thanks to Mompreneur friends Ellen Briggs and Carolina Lima Jantac for hosting me on their radio show.  If engaging teamwork in the kitchen sounds out of reach, think again.  There are tons of creative ways (beyond screaming and canceling cell phone service, both of which I’ve tried unsuccessfully many times) to get the kids on board to help make meals and clean up after.

I cautioned that safety comes first, so clearly think about ages and stages before getting young kids involved, but there are tons of helpful tasks for kids of any age.  A while back, I tried to capture the frustration along with a dose of inspiration, “What a Chore to Make Chores Work,” because it is truly tough to get kids excited about dishwashing soap.  It’s been 40+ years since Marlo Thomas released the all-time classic, “Free to Be You And Me,” but she was spot on in her “Housework is just no fun” song.  So what can we do to get the job done together and maybe have some fun along the way?

Here are links to some more articles on kids and chores:

  • When and How to Start Chores – Gregg Murset, My Job Chart founder, suggests to start them young and to be fair and consistent
  • Hal Runkel’s ScreamFree Parenting eQuip is so true:  “Isn’t it amazing that kids can create power point presentations … and figure out how to fix your iPod without even blinking, yet they will spend a full 15 minutes complaining about how hard it is to vacuum the living room?”

Comment on this post with your creative ideas on getting kids to help!

 

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