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​Encouraging kids to clean

Yes, that's right, how do we give our kids that push to get them to help out around the house?

Isn't it ironic that the ones that make the most mess do the least to clean it up! We believe that kids should have simple responsibilities early on to show them cause and effect. If they make a mess, the likelihood is that they will need to clean it up, this will deter them in future from making such a mess due to the knowledge that they will need to clean it.

Show me the money

Kids are simple creatures, but they are also very smart. Kids usually wont do something for nothing if they know that they might be able to get something out of it! Much like us, we go to work and each week we get a pay check​, so as humans we seek a reward for our work, the same applies to children! Giving kids a small amount of money for completing a task will teach them that they need to be prepared to put some work in to get money. It will also optimise their ability to understand the value of their time and effort, teaching them skills they can use throughout their lives.

Responsibility

Believe it or not children actually enjoy having responsibilities. Having responsibilities helps them to thrive and gives them something to be responsible for. Although cleaning isn't the most fun chore, it can be made fun using reward charts or making the responsibilities a a little competitive amongst siblings. You'd be surprised what a gold star on a homemade paper chart can achieve! 

Negative consequences

As much as we would love to have our kids running around after us cleaning up our clothes and empty dishes, I don't think we would be considered very good parents! In saying that, kids need to learn to be responsible for their own messes by learning that if they don't clean something up they might receive a negative consequence. If you have asked your child repeatedly to do a simple task which they are responsible for creating in the first place but they have decided that they would much rather play on their iPad then you can remove the iPad from the equation and tell them that they won't be allowed it for the rest of the day until they have completed the task. This teaches them that they do have responsibilities of which if not completed have a snowball effect on their reward system.