New year, new family chore chart! Using a family economy system has been really helpful for our family for nearly 6 years, but it’s definitely evolved over the years. Here’s the original post I wrote about our system! We got … Read More
Join us as we learn about Palestine for the January 2023 Global Children’s Book Club! This Palestine virtual field trip is a perfect way to explore the world from home. Be sure to check out the full 2023 Global Children’s … Read More
I’ve made packing lists for my kids for years, but it was really a game changer when I started making kids visual packing lists. It allowed even my young kids to start participating in the packing process, and getting them … Read More
I love starting each January with thinking about a few goals to guide the year. I don’t typically feel totally beholden to them but it’s a nice way for me to consider some long-term habits and things I’d like to … Read More
I am so happy to be releasing the details and book titles for the 2023 Global Children’s Book Club! We can’t wait to be “traveling” around the world to 6 different countries through books this year and hope you’ll join … Read More
I can’t quite wrap my head around the fact that this will be our 13th Christmas morning with little ones. We by no means have it all figured out, but we’ve definitely learned a few tricks in that time to … Read More
Nearly a decade ago, our church Christmas party involved visiting “Bethlehem.” Everyone walked into a church gym transformed into a dark, (fake) candlelit space with sheets hanging from the ceilings and on the floor. There were black construction paper nativity … Read More
I always smile when I see last minute gift ideas being shared several weeks before Christmas. Like, I aspire to be so prepared that early December is a “last minute” gift, but that’s almost never the case. Three days before … Read More
I’ve written a post about my personal favorite products of the year for the last couple years (here is the one for 2022), but I’ve never written one focused on kid items before. I figured it was time! I intended … Read More
I’ve done a post of some of my favorite products of the year for the last couple years, and it’s one of my favorites to write. It’s so fun thinking through the things that have been functional and brought me … Read More
With a lot of kids, it doesn’t really make sense for each child to give a gift to each sibling. It would be way too much work, too much money, and too much to open on Christmas! Instead, we do … Read More
Since our oldest turned 12 a couple months ago, most of our Christmas traditions have been around for nearly a decade now. We’ve we’ve done our Bethlehem dinner on Christmas Eve for at least that long, and we’ve eaten the … Read More
New year, new family chore chart! Using a family economy system has been really helpful for our family for nearly 6 years, but it’s definitely evolved over the years. Here’s the original post I wrote about our system!
We got off track for the latter half of last year – between a new baby and my dad passing away, things were just too much for me to manage. And that was fine. I decided it was a time of survival for everyone in the family, including me.
It’s reminded me that a family economy system isn’t without work, even after kids get good at it. My kids are really used to the system, but even then, it felt like too much for me during that season to think up age-appropriate responsibilities and to follow up and track their completion. It was a time when everyone still helped out with things like laundry, dinner clean up, and other joint family cleaning when needed. But it was not a time when each child was building responsibility, practicing remembering their own tasks, and developing new skills. I just didn’t have the bandwidth for guiding that.
Now that we’ve settled into…life a bit more, I’m feeling like I can get our system up and running again. Here are a few reasons why we use this system:
A family economy is our way of allowing everyone in the family to contribute to the running and management of the family, and then manage part of the family resources for their own needs and wants.
Dan and I didn’t want to divide “our” money and “their” money, and I didn’t want to pay them for things I expected them to do, anyway! We did, however, want to teach them financial responsibility and accountability. So we decided to give them responsibility over an increasing portions of the family’s money as they contributed more to the family’s management.
When our kids take care of their portion of the family’s work, they also get to manage a part of the family’s money and have certain family benefits. So it’s really rerouting the family money through them to give them ownership over that portion of the “family business.” It makes the whole system feel collaborative for us. These items are generally extras from what we expect of them regardless – joint cleaning/tidying, practicing instruments, etc. These are some of the things I include on their family economy lists for convenience in remembering, but that we expect them to do regardless.
Last year, we updated the way we ran our family economy a bit. I really liked those changes in the spring when we used them, so we’ll continue with that. Here are some details:
My kids get out of school early on Wednesdays, and I’d like to use that time to explore locally when we can. I’m leaving Wednesday chore-free to prioritize Wednesday adventures!
One of my kids tends to feel anxious when plans change and sometimes resist fun activities, play dates, etc. because they’re hyper-focused on their list. I want them to know it’s okay if that happens and we can be flexible. I’m going to make it clear that it’s fine to catch up on chores on Friday or Saturday (or even do them on eWednesday if we don’t have an adventure that day).
I want our kids to want to help siblings succeed, and to look around for ways to help others. So during catch up time, we’ll allow the kids to help each other out with finishing chores or working on music. If everyone has their chores completed, we’ll have a special dessert during Friday movie night – things like Italian sodas, ice cream bar, root beer floats, etc. Of course, waiting to complete chores until Friday means they’ll have less movie time, so hopefully this also incentivizes them to complete things on time when possible.
I also added a couple chores that are collaborative in nature. For instance, our oldest two will be asked to babysit younger siblings 2x per month together, but only have rotating chores every other week for making dinner and cleaning a bathroom. Hopefully this gives them more time for after school interests, helps them work together, and helps out Dan and me with a couple date nights per month. (This also allows us to compensate them for babysitting, instead of asking them to do it on top of regular chores. We also pay them with cash for any babysitting in addition to the 2 monthly times.)
Here’s a link to our updated 2023 chore chart system for kids. It also includes our tracking system for family economy money. You’re welcome to save your own copy and edit it however you wish! (Please don’t request access to the master copy; just go to File > Make a Copy to save your own.)
Have you ever done a family economy system before? How do chores and individual contributions to the home and family work in your home?
