My six-year-old asked for a chore chart.
You remember this child and her strange ways. She also asks for steamed broccoli for breakfast.
I am not a fan of charts. I’m not philosophically opposed to them or anything. It is simply that we have very little routine or similarities to our days. I fly by the seat of my pants most of the time. To be perfectly honest, anytime I try to implement a schedule, it lasts two days.
I stalled Norah for a few weeks as I tried to decide what to do about this chore business. I don’t want to frustrate her no-nonsense, black/white tendencies with my flights o’ fancy. I also didn’t want it to feel like a reward chart. As an adult who craves praise and gold stars, I am keen for my daughters to avoid this behavior.
Finally I came up with this:
I can pick the day’s tasks each morning and clip them to the “do” clothespin. This way I can customize them to fit the day. I recognize that I’m prone to disorganization so I placed blank cards and markers nearby in case I need to create a new task.
So far it is working for both of us. Norah enjoys looking at her tasks for the day. And I enjoy letting the cards nag instead of me.
Full disclosure: This labor of love was created in a hot mess of sobbing after the girls went to bed. My darling man tried to send me out of the house for a lone drive to Dunkin Doughnuts. Roll the windows down, listen to some good music. I hiccupped, “No, I just need to, gasp, sob, do this.”
I felt much better when I had finished the task. But the doughnuts would have been nice.
Inexplicable Ways 