If you want children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders. – Abigail Van Buren

During my summers growing up, we had a chore list. It was a yellow pad of lined paper that sat on the kitchen table that you read as soon as we got up. The list would have chores that you could either lounge all day and cram everything in before dad came home or it was a long day of chores. Now a days, I don’t have the yellow lined paper but the chore list is still there; laundry, dishes, sweep, dust, clean bathrooms, etc. Yippie! Maddox may eventually have the chore list on the yellow lined sheet on paper but for now we have his chore chart – perfect for a 4 year old.

Maddox’s chores are; put his dishes away, swiffer the floors, feed the doggies and pick up his toys. It’s $.50 for each time it’s done to Mom’s standards. (If anyone knows how I clean/keep our house; everything has a place and everything in it’s place and I’m pretty picky). After Maddox gets his allowance, it goes into his Piggy bank. In the beginning when we introduced it, he really didn’t have any interest in it. Day’s like today, he was all into earning as much as he could as we were all cleaning the house.

One day we went to the grocery store and he was so hard pressed on having a stuffed animal that I told him that he could get it but with his allowance. The next day, we learned how to count his piggy bank and counted to see if he had enough and he did. When we got to the store, he had the 2nd thoughts of spending almost all of his allowance and settled for a cheaper toy. He paid for it with his own money at the register, got his own bag and his own receipt. The clerk was so impressed, he got a sticker. Hopefully by starting to instill the chore list, what the piggy bank looks like full, and how to pay for stuff that he will learn to start saving money already to get what he really wants. I’m curious of what he will want when he gets older as we saved up our money for the Kiel picnic every year. There are times that he wants a toy, shirt or something and we’ll say no. He goes into pouty mode and I usually ask if he wants to take a picture to ask for it for Christmas. That seems to divert the meltdown in the store pretty good. Sometimes he remembers what we take pictures of but most of the time he has moved on. I can say for sure, it’s nice to have another extra set of hands helping around the house, especially if they are his little hands.

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