So, I know to some of you four children is a lot and to some four is a good place to start, right?
Our home is full of small to medium size children and all of their things, plus a mom, an extra-tall dad and all of their things. We try so hard to simplify and keep things streamlined, and we have come a long way, however for me there has to be a balance of living simply and letting my children have some space and things in the house!
Because we all live here and we all play with our toys, read our books, eat food off of dishes here, then I firmly believe we should all share in the workload of keeping the home clean. I believe families who play and WORK together stay together. I want my children to experience the sense of accomplishment that comes from getting their "jobs" done during the day.
I do not always excel at this, nor does every week go according to plan, but I have noticed that when I have a plan and share it with my family, things go way better! If you know me or have had me as an ECFE teacher, you are probably sick of me talking about CLEAR EXPECTATIONS. Being frustrated with how things are in your home - maybe you feel like you "do it all" is not a good feeling. However, expecting people to read your mind is not reasonable either.
I recommend taking these steps for a streamlined home:
- Develop a list of all the things you would like to have done in a week (examples - sweeping, dishes daily, trip to the library, meal planning, empty the litter box)
- Sit down with your parenting partner and talk about how you are feeling - use only "I feel" statements - do NOT accuse. (examples - "I feel overwhelmed with the house lately. I feel like it would be good for us to have a plan.")
- Work together to refine your list and divvy it up among yourselves and your children.
- Develop a format that works for you. A check list, buckets with Popsicle sticks, a "chore chart," find what works for you. It may take a few months of trial and error to find what suits your family.
- Expect that you will do a considerable amount of "job training" to begin with. Again, do NOT expect that your family can read your mind. If you like things cleaned a certain way, you must "train" your household help!
- Revisit the list often - ours has several basics that are in play every week, but I rotate the big cleaning jobs by week, so ours is printed up on Sundays and posted for the week
- My husband is currently working two jobs - teaching and coaching, so his help around the house is very minimal right now. He loves using a format like this, because he is more than willing to help when needed, he just needs to know what needs done.
- I work and volunteer part - time and am home most days right now with our two little ones.
- Our children's regular jobs are separate from their allowance (a whole other post to come - kids and money), however they have different jobs available to them every week where they can earn more money.
What have you learned about keeping your home running smoothly?
What jobs are your children in charge of at your home?
I laughed when I saw CLEAR EXPECTATIONS! You just said that to me yesterday in reference to my birthday! :)
ReplyDeleteChildren are never too young to help out. The door for our laundry shoot is low on the wall and when it's time to send clothes downstairs I set them by the open door and let my two year old twin boys put the clothes through the door. They LOVE it and yesterday it was a great oppotunity to teach them something unrelated. Judah picked up a pair of Dave's gym shorts and he said: "Dada!" so I picked up one of Maryn's dresses and said: "Who's is this?" to which he said: "May May!" We continued to do that with each piece of clothing and he got every one correct!
Starting them young is the way to go. :)
sounds like a fun laundry session - yep there are a few things that come out of my mouth extremely often and CLEAR EXPECTATIONS is definately one of them :) Identity development is another one - Am I Lovable? Am I Capable? hmmm...another blog post maybe???
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly the post I needed to read. Talk about feeling overwhelmed with everything going on with the house lately. Time to sit down with the hubby and talk about 'clear expectations' :)
ReplyDeleteOh I hear ya! My life sure would be less bumpy if I remembered to do this all the time, good luck in your conversations!!!
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