What Experts Say About Chores & Screen Time for Kids!

Kids doing chores in the NEWS

A survey by Braun Research last year says 82 percent of adults had chores as children, but only 28% of children today have chores and help out around the house.

So that makes me a minority in two ways. Firstly I didn't have chores as a child and secondly my kids do chores today.

As a child I remember one time that my mom (a single parent) was loudly sharing her frustration that as soon as she had cleaned a room that my brother and I would mess it up again. She continued to share that she felt that she could never get ahead, and as she continued on she grew more upset as she told us how she did everything and that we should help out more and pick up after ourselves. ​

I remember exactly what I was thinking at that moment. I thought that of course we want to be in the clean room, it was more enjoyable to be in. More importantly I was thinking that if she had told us to clean that we would have. To be fair, I also remember thinking that she would have had to put a great deal of effort into getting us to help for it to actually happen but the message that I am trying to highlight is that we would have. In no way was I going to let her in on that secret because then she would know that we would have actually helped. (for the record... Sorry mom - we should have helped more)

Let's face it... my mom didn't want to have to get mad before we would help and as a parent neither do I. What I want is for my kids to be motivated to help on their own without arguing, fights, or simply wearing myself out in the process.

I struggled with this for a long time. Always feeling frustrated that I wasn't getting enough help around the house, worrying that I was letting my kids down by not teaching them how to do chores and also by not having as much time to spend with them. But like many parents I didn't want the fight and it seemed easier to do it myself. However when my oldest turned 9 and I realized that half of the time that I would have her at home was gone I started to feel panicky and realized that I needed to figure this out.

​“It is not what you do for your children, but what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make them successful human beings.”
― Ann Landers

This is when I came up with a chore chart system that has changed our family life. Now everyone helps, everyone now has chore responsibilities and they also have chores in which they earn tickets that they can redeem for privileges, money, or/and screen time. My kids are happy and helping and it has been amazing! I no longer need to nag my children, they were (and still are) excited to do their chores, they are learning how to do new things, I have more time for me and more time for them and everything runs so much more smoothly. You wouldn't think they were the same kids. It was so amazing in fact that I decided to develop our chore system as a real retail product so that it would be available for other families as I wish it had been available for us when we needed it.

Chances are that if you are here then you are already familiar with our chore system, NEATLINGS Chore Chart System, but if not you have to check it out!! Click here to learn more about it and see how it works!

That is my story but I am not an educated professional in child development or education but as you can imagine I have done plenty of research on the topic. Which is why I thought it would be fun to share some video links on what the experts say about chores for kids.

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July 15, 2016

Christa Murray from LSU Health
​suggests having kids earn tickets for screen time

I wasn't able to embed a video of this one but if you click on the image it will open a new page and bring you right to the news segment where you can watch what this expert has to say about having kids earn tickets that can be redeemed for screen time. 

click image to open a new window to view the video

NEATLINGS Chore Chart System is a perfect and easy to use tool that can be used to implement this type of system where your kiddos earn tickets for screen time.

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June 2, 2016

Dr. Deborah Gilboa speaks on Today.com 
​"How NOT to raise a little jerk: Do this with your kids"

You can watch the segment by clicking on Dr. Gilboa's image.

click image to open a new window to view the video "How NOT to raise a little jerk: Do this with your kids"

More videos by Dr. Deborah Gilboa about children and chores.

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May 1, 2014

Spain Proposes Mandatory Housework for Children

Okay, so I realize that this one is a little old but when I stumbled across it I found myself almost relieved to find that getting kids motivated to do chores is a worldwide challenge. Not that that is surprising but it felt validating all the same. 

Our country isn't alone; motivating kids to do chores spans the globe.

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Do you have some articles, videos or thoughts to share? Go ahead and leave us a comment.