A Job Chart for Every Family Situation?
September 27th, 2011 - Category: My Job Chart
As we approached the blog today, the question came up: are these posts (and the free service MyJobChart provides) valuable for every family? After all, not every family is the same. In fact, we were recently given a link to a great “statistics” blog entry from Medicalbillingandcoding.org.
This blog post talks about the diversity of families, and what has changed over the years. Some of the things we found interesting included:
-The increase in the number of stay-at-home dads
-The average amount of time working women still spend taking care of the house
-The number of single parent families
This information was interesting because more than ever it supports the need for a chore chart. But it also helped us realize:
Generic chore charts do not work for most families. You’ve got to find a chore chart that works for you. Whether you’re a single mother who already has a full schedule, or you have a two parent family with one parent at home, your needs are unique. Printing off a pre-determined chore chart is very rarely going to fit your lifestyle. That’s one of the great things about MyJobChart.com…it can be easily changed and adapted to meet your child’s abilities, skills, and how much help you need from them.
You need a chore chart that is easy to create and change. The number of working women has increased significantly over the last few years. Parents are busier and trying to create and manage a chore chart from scratch can be time consuming. With Myjobchart.com, putting your chore chart together and managing your child’s rewards (or lack thereof) is a piece of cake.
You need the ability to check in anytime, anywhere. With more parents at work, keeping an eye on your children takes more time and more effort. With a job chart that you can check from any computer, you can take a break at work and check up on your child’s efforts. Plus, Myjobchart.com means you never lose your chart or end up crossing out or adding new chores.
Can you have a blog post (and, of course, a product) that successfully meets the needs of every type of family? We sure think so. If you haven’t tried Myjobchart.com yet, you really need to take some time and check it out. For every type of family, it’s the perfect solution for guiding your family and helping them become more responsible.
What’s Your Job Chart Motivation?
September 19th, 2011 - Category: Charts
The kids are back in school. And if you’re like most parents, that means time to re-evaluate everything from schedules, to extra-curricular activities, to job charts. What worked during the summer is certainly not going to work now. But, as you spend time reviewing your children’s chore chart, take a minute to decide what your motivation is. That will help you determine what chores to put on the list, and which to leave off.
For some parents, kids’ schedules are already so hectic, they’d rather spend an extra hour a day with their kids rather than giving their kids more chores to do. For other families, parents struggle to manage the house on their own. They need their children to take on extra responsibilities.
Everyone’s situation is different. But once you’ve determined your motivation – what you need accomplished – you’ll be able to create a job chart that works well for your family. But here are a few words of warning:
If your motivation is spending more time with your kids…try to avoid going too light on the chores. Taking out the trash, though important, is not enough to teach your child to be responsible. Half an hour of chores each day should still leave you plenty of time together.
If your motivation is keeping the house well cared for…try to avoid overwhelming your children. If there are too many things on the to-do list, your children may develop a Cinderella complex. Be fair. Let them help you. But remember that they are still children. They need time for homework and play.
If your motivation is to teach them responsibility…you might want to add a few challenging chores. Again, don’t overwhelm them with work, but a single task that requires some effort (like making dinner) should be your starting point on your chore chart.
If your motivation is to teach them financial responsibility…consider assigning chores with varying rewards. For example, mowing the lawn might be worth 20 points whereas taking out the trash is worth two. Then, let your children pick and choose which of their assigned chores to do and when. This will help them learn to manage their time. Just be sure you have some way of getting all the chores completed.
Here’s one more parting thought…share your motivation with your family. Let your children know why you selected the chores you did. Let them know what you expect them to achieve and why. Children are often more helpful when they understand why they are being asked to help. Then, when situations come up later (and they always come up), you can simply remind your child why their contribution is so important to your family.
Creating a chore chart is never easy. You’ve got to determine who does what, when, and what their compensation will be. It takes a lot of effort. But if you create a chore chart based on something concrete, your task will be much easier.