Chores I did as a kid: dusting, vacuuming, dishes, bathrooms… now that I think about it, I pretty much had to clean the whole house! :-/ No real allowance to speak of either!

Chores I can’t wait for my 18 month old to do: mowing, weed pulling, litter boxes and dog poo!

I did all the chores as a kid-clean my room, make my bed, rake leaves, do the dishes, set the table–but I did ’em with my siblings, so it was more fun! (Except I hated chores on Saturdays. UGH).

I didn’t get paid for chores specifically, though the only week-to-week chore I was required to do was keeping my room clean but I did receive a weekly allowance of $20 that I used as lunch money and got to keep whatever was left over at the end of the week.

And my siblings and I totally got paid for grades. For every A we got the dollar amount based on our current school grade (ex. $10 per A in the 10th grade), received nothing for a B, and owed back money for C’s. And if we got straight A’s for the semester, our total payout was doubled. We could definitely make bank in high school for having good grades.

I had to set the dinner table most nights and for some reason I just haaaated it. What a brat I was—at least it wasn’t taking out the trash!

We mainly used to help with dusting and vacuuming. I’ve never minded vacuuming but I HATE dusting. To this day, it’s probably my most neglected chore. lol

I had to do chores, but rarely got an allowance. I didn’t mind, I was a goody-two-shoes!

I know this will come as a shock to you, but my parents never had me do chores. Anddddd, yeah. I don’t think I was spoiled- my parents just took care of everything themselves. I do however run errands since I still live with my parents, so I guess that is a chore?

I was in charge of mowing the lawn when I was a teenager. I didn’t mind it at all–I was outside, got a little exercise and I earned $10! I was a happy camper.

In general, my sisters and I were expected to take turns doing dishes, and we were all in charge of doing our own laundry.

The chore I hate most as an adult is vacuuming. Can’t stand it. Thank goodness my husband likes doing it, or else we’d have the dirtiest floors ever!

Chores as a kid-putting dishes away, taking dirty laundry to the basement, cleaning the bathroom, washing floors. I didn’t get an allowance, “it was part of everyday house upkeep”, as my mother told me. My siblings and I never received an allowance.

My 7 year old is responsible for feeding the dogs dinner, emptying the dishwasher, and keeping her room picked up daily. My husband convinced me that we should pay her $3/wk, but deduct $ if items are not done.

Can you wash my baseboards when you are done? They get pretty dusty/dirty here in CO too! 🙂

I think chores are important because they teach kids responsibility and prepares them to be independent.
I had to teach my 17 years old summer intern how to mop and clean the counters over the last couple of weeks. He had no idea where to start! His future wife can thank me later haha

I didn’t get an allowance but I did have to do chores. Empty the dishwasher everyday and clean my bathroom once a week. My mom also eventually started making me do my laundry, but not until my senior year of high school (I guess to prepare me for college).

I had to practice piano for at least 30 minutes every day, & then my 2 sisters & I had rotating chores of sweeping the kitchen after each meal, wiping down the kitchen table, & emptying all the trash cans in the house (all of these after each meal). We would each have 1 chore for the week & switch on Sundays. Then we had Saturday chores too- my mom had 3 index cards made & those were rotated too. We had to do all those things to get our $2 weekly allowance. 🙂 We could earn extra by mowing the yard, which I always did. $10 for the front, $10 for the back. I loved mowing!
I’m glad my parents had us do chores, it helped me learn how to keep a tidy home!
When we were older Tuesday nights were the night we each had a turn cooking dinner to help my mom b/c she was in grad school & had classes that night. We got to plan the menu & everything. It was fun! We will definitely have our kids do chores, & they will get an allowance. Not sure how it will be related though.

Ugh. i spent the morning sweeping, mopping and scrubbing baseboards myself.

You have baseboards because without them you’d see the gap where the uneven end of the drywall doesn’t quite meet the floor. That would be worse.

You sure do have a pretty wainscot and baseboards though!

I had chores as a kid too… bathroom, my own room, laundry, we all took turns walking the dogs, etc. I didn’t get an allowance, but once I turned 16 my parents paid for my cell phone and insurance and gas for my car. I wasn’t allowed to have a job, but I had to keep above at 3.6 GPA, play sports, volunteer, and was also the President of my class, which kept me busy. I agree with you Caitlin, that I think kids should get an allowance based on ‘good behavior’ and not just if they can make their bed. Good post :).

Growing up we had rotating chores, but somehow I always ended up having more to do than my slacker siblings… Strangely enough, the messiest of us is now the uber-clean professional project manager. Rest assured, that is *not* me. These days I don’t mind any chores- I just resent the time required to do them!

There aren’t many chores they I despise that I can remember right now. My mother DESPISES unloading the dishwasher, so I take on that duty whenever I’m around.

I did chores because I lived there and starting in 9th grade my parents never touched my laundry again (OCD and control issues!). I did whatever chores needed to be done (dishes, bathroom, vacuum, etc)…I was given a flat rate per week to cover any expenses I might have and it was not tied to chores.

I didn’t get paid for chores — my parents said it was part of being a member of the family to do your fair share 🙂 I watered plants, wiped base boards (really!), helped pick up sticks before my dad mowed our lawn (we lived on an acreage), etc. That said, they were willing to give us money for little things here and there.

Just heard on the news that the avg. parent gives a child $65 a month as an allowance!

I used to love doing the ironing, I guess I found it therapeutic and quiet – unlike the vacuuming which is so loud, ugh. I found as a kid that doing chores with music on got me more in the mood and distracted me while I was doing something I didn’t enjoy very much:P I was never an extremely high achiever at school and was glad Mum never punished me if I didn’t get A’s, I just think that would’ve been too much pressure and I would’ve enjoyed school a lot less which would’ve impacted on my grades. Mum put a lot of emphasis on trying on best and if our best was a C, as in maths and science, at least we’d tried – I endeavor to pass this moral onto my future children:)

My siblings and I rotated the daily chores (setting the table, clearing the table, washing the dishes, taking out the trash, etc). Our rooms had to be completely cleaned once a week, and we each cleaned one “other” room in the house (kitchen, bathroom, living room, etc) every Saturday morning.

Since my mother worked we were also left a list of things that needed to be done by the time she came home from work (peel and dice the potatoes for dinner, put the chicken in the oven to start cooking, walk to the store and get bread, etc)

We all had to mow the lawn. We also rotated doing laundry and DREADED when my brother would do it. I swear he screwed it up each time to see if he could get out of it!

My mother used to say ” I didn’t make this house dirty by myself so I am not cleaning it by myself!”

We did receive an allowance each week, we had to put a minimum of 10% into our bank accounts – we had to walk it to the bank and deposit it. It really stuck with me, I still put 10% of my paycheck away in savings each week. I think that was one of the best things my parents did for us.

By the time we left the house – we could all clean, cook, balance a checkbook, write a check, change a tire, do a three point turn, and fill the car with oil! The last three are curtesy of my Dad, he wouldn’t let you sit for your drivers exam until you could those things!

We (my brother and I) had a number of chores growing up that changed as we got older. I don’t remember the exact ages for a number of them but we vacuumed, dusted, cleaned the bathrooms, walked the dogs, cleaned our rooms, did our laundry, etc. We had an allowance too but it wasn’t really tied to the chores. Chores were just a part of being a member of the house.
One thing my parents did that I really appreciate to this day is that at the age of 10 we were allowed to start cooking dinner. We had four tasks associated with dinner (and four people in the family – funny how that worked out perfectly 😉 hehe) – cooking, setting the table, clearing the table, and doing the dishes. Each person was assigned one task each evening. When we were little, we could set the table and clear the table (and our parents had the cook/dishes tasks). Then once we “proved” ourselves, we could do the dishes as well. And then, once we could do the dishes well enough to pass inspection AND had turned 10, we could start cooking (with parental assistance). What this means is I started cooking for my family at the age of 10 and have never really had to worry about how to cook. I was completely grateful for this ability in college and I plan on making sure my kids get the same type of experience (it might be awhile since my little one is only 8 months old).