How We Share Household Duties

For my H&H group, our current blog assignment is how we share household duties.

First, I have to add that I am very lucky to have a hardworking husband who also helps out at home (when he's here)! He also referees a lot of soccer since I don't work now that we are homeschooling. He literally has had at least one game every day this week and WAS IN three different CITIES for games' today!

So anyhow, here are the household duties my husband does: 

• all the lawn care. I will confess I have never once mowed a yard! Cut grass is one of the thing sets off my allergies and I have never wanted to nor had to do it. Thanks goodness I had a brother and then got married when I was a grown up! ;-)
• the dishes (anything that can't go in the dishwasher, sippy cup parts, hand wash items, and sometimes he has to load or unload the dishwasher if a kid forgot. I cook, he cleans up. We have had this arrangement since we got married. I think Brian's dad and mom had this same set up, so he doesn't know some men won't. Don't tell him!
• all the gross stuff - he will clean vomit, clean toilets, kill bugs, pull kids' peed on bedsheets off the beds etc..
• anything I need help with! He is great to help me with anything if I ask.

What I do:

• all the cooking
• all the laundry - by my choice... I'm really crazy about laundry.. that'd be another blog entirely!
• most of the cleaning
• most of the care of the kids
• all the care and feeding of the baby
• and I almost forgot... be the teacher to 4 kids at 4 different grades with their gazillion subjects ;-)

What our kids do:

Honestly, until this year, not much! We have asked the kids to participate in the home more. I used to offer them allowance to do things to help out. Then, after pinning like a crazy woman about chore charts (see that board here!) and asking my friends on Facebook what their kids have to do, I have changed that a bit. Some of my friends said their kids have to help because they are part of the family. So that really sunk in and I really appreciated that sentiment. It is true. They are part of the family and should help and in a big family may NEED to help! With that said though, I am not big on the kids having to do massive amounts of chores either. Their main job right now is to do their school work and apply themselves to the best of their ability.

Another FB friend said they have their kids do all the chores that pertain directly to them and some to help the house. That was probably the one that clicked the most for me. 

Here is what we do now:

The kids are responsible for putting away their own clothes. I like all of Grace and Cian's clothes to be hung up, so they have to hang them. Zoe and Ellie have dressers for shorts and pants, but all the shirts get hung.

• Grace hangs her own clothes and also hangs Fionn's since she is too young
• Zoe hangs her own shirts and Ellie's shirts because she is too young to hang them
• Ellie does put away her own shorts, socks and underwear in the dresser
• Cian hangs his own clothes and since he doesn't have to hang anyone else's he is in charge of the shoe racks

I have yet to find a schedule for which days this happens though. Laundry really fills fast with 7 people and I usually do laundry daily unless I want to end up with a marathon day of it. Clothes tend to live on the couch for a few days until the pile for each kid is pretty big then they put them away. I'd like a better system or schedule, but haven't figured one out yet. Is it too much for kids to be putting away clothes every day?! Anyone have any good ideas on that one?? :-)

They also have to clean up their spot at the table. It doesn't sound like a lot, but since we homeschool at the same table, they have to clean books off 4 times a day for two snacks, lunch and at the end of the school day. After each time we eat there, they also have to put their dishes in the sink, throw away any garbage and rinse their cup out so it can be reused later that day.

Each kid also has a daily chore assigned to them:

• Grace is to unload and put away items from the dishwasher
• Cian is to reload the dishwasher after dinner
• Zoe is to do the above mentioned spot at the table cleaning for Ellie since she can't or more likely won't

Something new we have started this month is a Saturday household chore. We just have too much during the week between all the subjects we cover, field trips, weekly events during the school day and evening dance classes 4 nights a week to add housework into the mix during the week. I have also had to have the kids take on more for me because of the stage - cranky teether - that Fionnuala is in right now. There are some nights that it is 10pm-12am before she is happy being put down instead of being held by me so I can do stuff, grade schoolwork and pack the workboxes for Zoe and Ellie for the next day of school.

We are still trying to decide who does what chore, because they seem to all want to do the same one. I am thinking about a rotating schedule I saw on pinterest or drawing the chore out of a hat, but here is what we did today:

Zoe's job was to dry mop the floors

Cian's job was to wet-mop the floors

Ellie's job was to "clean the windows" and by clean the windows, I mean wipe them with a swiffer duster. All two to three feet she could reach. But, she felt included and involved and that's what matters most!

Grace's assigned job today was to help with Fionn while I prep school work or make lunches etc..

She's the baby whisperer!!!

You can read what my fellow H&H'ers do at their blogs: Carla, Laura and Jen!