Help
With Your Rule
When a Child Isn't Doing His Part...
Dear Holly,
How do you handle it if a child takes longer to get chores done (due to dawdling..they had ample time to complete it)? I talked to one of my children today about this, as the rest of us were waiting on him to start our morning family prayer time. It wasn't a big deal, just a little detail , but I thought I'd ask about it.
Labels: 4th P Parent
posted by Holly at 11:48 AM
4 Comments:
For a child who has not completed a chore with ample time due to dawdling, but the rest of the family is ready to begin the next scheduled activity together and needs that person, I halt the dawdling child mid-way in what they're doing, and have them come join us in the new activity.
The work must still be done however, and this will have to be done before any free time or computer use or t.v. or the like.
That means, if Susie didn't mix up the milk before school as scheduled, she can make it before she goes out to join the others at recess. So when she ought to be enjoying her well earned 'free time', instead she's still doing chores while the others, having completed their work, get to go out on break. It doesn't take long for the child to realize "This isn't quite what I wanted...." :-)
In subsequent days, I'd gently remind "Surely you don't want to spend your recess doing this, do you?" It works.
Hello!
What if ALL of your children are dawdlers?? I think i could focus on just one, but most of them do this. It's hard to keep track of what they are all skipping out on. I'm not being a smart aleck-- just seriously troubled about this.
Go to the May 18th post re how to have your kids stay on task. This works.
:-)
Holly
I have dawdlers too and I find that telling them I'm setting the timer for them to finish their chore really helps. They HATE it, but they know if they don't finish it in a timely manner they will receive either another chore or possibly writing lines if they're old enough. Good Luck!
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