Just venting

[GSDolch]

It helps when they have something they really want to do. My oldest is in band now. She is in 8th grade but got an invite to join the highschool marching band (pretty big thing). She has to pull her weight around here or no band. End of it. When she was younger I told her to clean her room or I was going to throw her toys out. She didnt clean her room, so when she got home from school I had gone through everything, gave away 4 garbage bags full of toys and put the rest in my closet until she earned them back.

Right now im having trouble with my oldest son, he will be 10 in Oct. and he fights me tooth and nail on his chores. Even the babies (2 and 1) dont fight me as much as he does.

I think some of it to is saying "its going to be this way" and then sticking to it.

[EchoGSD]

I have three kids, ages 22 (daughter, Beth), 18 (son, Rob) and 14 (son, Ed). Beth was doing her own laundry by the time she was 13 -- her choice, she just started doing it. My boys do their own, but only after they totally run out of options. They have chores that they regularly try to get out of, but for the most part they get things done. The challenge is picking the battle: just because they don't do it the way I would, doesn't (always) mean they didn't do it correctly....<grin>

[StarryNite]

I am just now starting to get strict with my 6 year old. I can tell I have spoiled her by her "do nothing but for herself" attitude. Granted that is passable for a 6 year old but I don't want her to stay spoiled so she now cleans her room and is finally actually doing a good job after 6 months of training and grounding and arguing. Now she also cleans the cat box and sweeps the floor, I am going to continue to add more as she gets older. The way I work it is I won't take her to do anything fun until her chores are done, as minute as they are, it still works