When I take the time to observe our children doing chores, I am truly amazed.  In general, they complete their chores every day.  Only occasionally do I have to call someone back for a redo.  I do not remind them or nag them that it is chore time.  We sure have come a long way.  It is amusing to think back to our chores in the early years.  Sometimes we would go several days without doing chores.   Other days we would partially complete our chores.  So how did we make this change?  Well, the real change came to my attitude and level of consistency.

In the early years, the children’s chores were so small.  It did not seem like a big deal if they were missed. Oh how short sighted that was!  As a mom with only small children, I failed to realize that it was not really about the chores.  It was about order, consistency, and diligence.  A little boy that frequently skips chores becomes a big boy with an identical habit.

I made a set chore time and stuck to it.  The children were trained in their chores and chore inspections took place.  On occasion consequences were given.  This might sound like an awful lot of work.   Well, yes and no.  It definitely took a chunk a time and energy.   However as I look back at that period of life, that amount of time and energy expended was extremely small compared to the dividends it pays out today.  I now have five children.  There is no end to the things I must do, but household chores are only a small fraction of it.  My children clean readily and joyfully.  The youngest ones come up with their own chores because they see what an important part of the family chores are.  They want to be important.  All of this frees me a lot of time that I can spend elsewhere.  All it took was a little bit of patience and an initial time investment.