Hey my Niki MENAGES!
Have you ever dreamt of a pitch perfect house that is spick and span? And then you wonder how this dream can become reality because you’re already exhausted from attending to exuberant kids?
Well, it’s possible!
And the best part, you can get your kids involved in achieving this too!
Sounds surreal? Don’t give up too fast just yet. Let’s explore a few ways to achieve this;
What to do
- Give out one chore at a time.
Picture this;
I typically start with giving each child one or two tasks to complete at a time. When they are done with a particular task, I can decide to give an extra one or two.
I’ve discovered that giving a couple of chores all at once at a given time bores the kids and tires them out. They feel like they are being asked to do a lot.
But guess what?
You can actually get them to do a lot without making it obvious.
- Chore cards
I recently stumbled upon a couple of these cards and I couldn’t help printing some out to suit my specific chores for the girls.
We call them the chore bingos.
Sometimes, it’s like a game or activity for them where they get to pick a card at random and do whatever the card reads.
That way, the chores are not too monotonous or boring for them. it’s just for fun though, or to spice things up once in a while, especially during the holiday just like this one.
Life Skill
I’m that mum who loves to see things done almost perfectly or exactly how I want it.
If you’re like me, I get it too.
What I did was to change my mindset to understand that whether the dishes were done in a particular order or not, didn’t really matter much. What mattered more were the skills involved like;
- Mum not having to remind the kids to always do the dishes
- The kids’ ability to recognize that the plates were clean enough to rinse and dry.
- And more like that.
Can you see the difference?
Ofcourse who wouldn’t appreciate when things are done exactly the way they want? But I’ve realized that it just makes me a talkative micro-momager of my kids for days on end. How tiring can that be and for how long?
An amazing cleaning hack
I noticed that the kids would ocassionally mix up my kitchen towels. They would use the one meant for the gas and counter top for drying the dishes and vice versa.
So I introduced baby wipes!
It may not be a lasting technique neither is it as cost effective but it’s definitely worth all the talk that goes with mixing up the towels.
- Finally…
No matter how tempting it may be to redo the cleaning, I try to avoid doing that – at least not in their presence. I would rather give constructive criticisms and increase the frequency of their cleaning schedules.
It helps with building their independence, speed and accuracy at completing these cleaning chores.
Most importantly, always remember to give age appropriate cleaning chores to your kids. Again, if you need tips on this, read all about it here.
Thanks for stopping by the blog today. Let me know your preference in the comment section. See you in my next post.
XOXO,
Yours Truly
Nikimandi
