Photo: The Real Estreya / Flickr

The trick to peaceful chore allocation in the home is not to convert your house into a boot camp, but to emphasise good values such as fairness, sharing and most importantly respect. Make lists and negotiate, this way everyone is part of the process of keeping the home a well-oiled happy machine. It’s all about positive parenting.

Strategies for maintaining fairness

All is really fair in love and no war and communication is vital. Clearly demarcating chores beforehand on a weekly basis means no fighting. Make sure to rotate tasks so as to be fully involved in the functioning of the household. Holding each member of the household accountable doesn’t mean a free pass to nagging, but having an ‘accountabilabuddy’ (someone to hold you accountable by suggesting and even helping you if you’re lagging) approach to chores helps one see the needs of one’s partner/child/family member as being important, which sustains and improves relationships.

Practising to be a Positive parent

Whether you have kids, you’re about to have them or are thinking about it applying positive parenting techniques to the allocation of household chores is a great way to practise for incorporating and training the little ones. If they see successful teamwork between you and your partner it won’t be hard to get them excited about sharing the load at home, particularly if you buy tools for them specifically. So, the next time you’re looking for garden utensils, get replica plastic ones for the kids to copy mum and dad.

Character building

Responsibility is a key tool for building character in ones kids and in building good relationships in any household. There are few better ways to make children responsible than by giving them chores. Share the load and lower the burden, but start small. Making your six-year-old mow the lawn is dangerous, but making him/her run around the yard chasing leaves makes for a happy clean garden. The trick is positive parenting, making the chores fun for the kids, and keeping a chore chart of everyone’s duties to track progress.