Once we had moved into our new house I decided that I wanted the children to take an active role in the daily tasks that need to be done in order to keep everything ticking over and our home a nice place to be. With that in mind I started a new jobs board. A frame with string across it, little pegs and small decorated envelopes each with a task or job written on it and a coin in it.
Each job is either daily, weekly or ad hoc and each comes with an amount towards their pocket money. The idea is they help, they earn. They don't help then they don't earn and have no money at the end of the week to buy themselves something. I have tried to keep things age appropriate - feed the cats, put away clean washing, keep bedroom tidy, sweep kitchen floor etc and have made it as visual as I can. I worked it out that they could each earn up to £7.50 a week - a reasonable sum when you are 5 or 7 years old.
The first 2 weeks went so well that they had enough to buy themselves a toy, an excellent success but one that needs to last as long as we can make it.
I am really careful about the jobs on there - there is no way I would expect them to clean out the cat's litter tray or empty the bins. I am also not expecting them to do ironing, anything to do with the washing machine or tumble dryer nor would I ask them to clean (with products or chemicals) or hoover. But, once they are older then some of these jobs may fall inside their abilities and be included.
I guess it will evolve as they get older and I would never expect them to do everything but I do want them to learn that if we all help each other then we can keep a lovely home and have time to do things together. At the moment it is a positive way to reward kind helpful, behaviour and we have also added a couple of homework and reading based tasks to support their school work and to provide incentive for something that they find tedious and boring.
I know that some people question why I am 'paying' my children to help around the house and I appreciate that it might look like that but they were so used to their foster carers doing everything for them that it is a hard cycle to break. It also reinforces the lesson that in order to buy them nice things mummy and daddy have to go to work to earn the money that we need to have the nice things like new toys. It is what we have to tell them when they get upset that we are at work and not home with them all the time. It is also a valuable life lesson for the future - nothing is given for free, it all has to be earned.
