EDITOR’S NOTE: City Dads Group is working with longtime partner Dove Men+Care to create “how to” videos for the grooming products company’s “Dads Care” campaign. We will be featuring the videos and scripts our members appear in. This one features contributor Mike Dorsey and his children, Maxwell and Morgan, talking about how to get the children to choose chores over hanging on the couch.
Incentivize them
The first thing for helping your kids choose chores over the couch is for parents to establish a level of incentive for them. For instance, getting additional playtime is a great reward for getting a task done and done well. This morning, my kids had online school. That is a responsibility I told them that they had to complete if they wanted to get to playtime later on in the day.
Clean up before moving on
When your kids get into playtime or down time on the couch or in front of a screen, you have to encourage them to clean up what they were doing before they can move on to start another activity. For example, when my kids are painting for fun before they can move on to riding bikes or getting on their tablets or watching television, they have to completely clean up all of this stuff they were using on the back porch before doing anything else.
Create a schedule
This is an important tip that can help with many other things. If you create a schedule or calendar for your children’s work and play time, it ends up helping your kids develop not only a routine but a level of responsibility and a path to fun. It also will come into play when your children get back into school after a long break or during these less structured times of online schooling.
Choose chores photo: © insta_photos/ Adobe Stock.
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