Chores

I have a feeling that very shortly my family are going to kill my printer!
I have been finding it very stressful at present getting everyone to follow through on their chores within the house!
Now these are chores that the whole family have sat down and decided on, not just me dishing them out. The boys even sat with use agreeing on what chores went where and with whom.

As a few things have changed around here it was necessary for the chores to be on a list on the wall, a) so we could all keep track of who did what and b) so our home help knew who did what as well.

This however lead to me printing out a list of daily activities for the boys. Just the days of the week and listing whether they had before or after school care, whether it was swimming, library etc at school and also, not that they needed any reminding at all, what nights we have Judo on.

Although this then lead to me writing a list of chores for the morning in our house. If there is ever one area of the day that I hate it is the mornings. Ok so it doesn't help that I am NOT a morning person, not one little bit, however to add to this hopeless cause is the fact that neither are Alex or Steve. Ben however, springs out of bed at 6.30am (6am sometimes!) full of life and eager for the day to start which usually includes turning on the tv.
It has taken many a time to convince him to get up quietly and creep downstairs by himself, which he is happy to do. He will turn on the light in the hallway, go downstairs and then turn the light out, snuggle under a blanket on the couch and happily watch tv until others surface in the building.
Sometimes however, he will turn on his bedroom light and succeed in waking his brother up! Alex on the other hand could usually do with at least 30 minutes more sleep!
However on week mornings, we have made a new rule....everyone up by 6.30 and absolutely NO tv at all.
Everyone now has their chores lists so we know who is responsible for getting what achieved.
On Monday, first day of following the list, things ran very smoothly, there was no yelling or shouting, everyone knew who was responsible for what and things got achieved. I actually got to work in a very calm mood, and if I noticed it within myself then my colleagues must have surely noticed it too!

So even though the noticeboard in the kitchen looks like it has been taken over by laminated chore lists, if it makes the house run more smoothly and efficiently with everyone happier, then they are here to stay for a while.