Most parents would know getting their children to help out around the house can be tricky.
But for Australian mother Trish Lott, she found an ingenious solution to motivate her children, aged four, six and eight, to do household chores.
Using a photo frame, she created a ‘chore chart’ where she listed all the work that needed to be done daily – and she added the pocket money to each task she thought was worth.
Here, the mother explained how the efficient system has worked like a treat.
A mother has found an ingenious solution to motivate her children to do chores – she used a photo frame and stickers to create her board and she pegs each task with pocket money
The idea sprung into mind after she realised she needed to be less lenient because far too often she was treating her children to whatever they wanted.
And so the mother, from Victoria, wanted to demonstrate to her kids that they needed to complete tasks around their abode because money doesn’t come easy.
‘The reason behind it is because in the past, my kids have pretty much always got what they wanted,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.
‘I would go to the shops and they would always walk out with something, I’m a sucker like that. Totally all my doing, but I wanted my kids to realise that it’s not always like that.
‘They haven’t been able to understand ‘not today mate, Mum can’t afford it’ so now they are learning all about saving and counting money.
‘It’s a great skill especially for my two boys in school.’
Australian mother Trish Lott found an ingenious solution to motivate her children, aged four, six and eight, to do household chores
She came up with the cunning plan after she tried everything imaginable to get her children to do their chores around the house.
‘In the past I’ve done the sticker chart, the stamps, the weekly pocket money if chores were done and my kids just weren’t interested,’ she said.
‘I was constantly nagging them. I thought about having small amounts of money and having it as a visual for my kids so they can see the end reward for helping out.’
And so the mother-of-three pulled together a photo frame and stickers she purchased from Kmart for her creation.
‘I went off to Kmart with an idea in my head of how to pull it together and hit the jackpot with the gold pegs as they were exactly what I had in mind,’ she said.
‘The frame cost $8, which I just took the card and the glass out of it. The pegs were $3 for a pack of 10 and the two different sticker sheets were $2 each.
‘So a total of $15. It took less than half an hour to pull together.’
When the children completed their task, they were awarded their pocket money, ranging from 20c to $1.
‘Since my kids are still fairly young, we can quite happily give 50c or 20c for a chore, not sure how it will go when they are older but at the moment it’s working great,’ she said.
‘My four-year-old daughter dances around like she’s won the lotto when she puts her for feeding the cats in her money box. It makes me so happy.
‘The 50c for vacuuming the toy room has yet to be touched but I’m hopeful.’
She came up with the cunning plan after she tried everything imaginable to get her children to do their chores around the house
The system has been around the family’s household for a month now, and Ms Lott said her children have been motivated to do their chores more than ever.
‘It has been brilliant. My kids see it refreshed with money every morning and are keen to do the jobs to help get some money,’ she said.
‘All three kids have a layby on at the moment, my eldest is almost ready to pick up a $129 Lego set that he has paid for completely himself. He is so proud of himself and I am proud of him too.
‘These chores are purely there so they can earn some money to buy the things they want – and learn about saving and having pride in yourself for the things they buy.
‘I don’t nag the kids to do the chores, if they don’t do it they miss out for that day and that leads to it taking even longer to pay off.’
Since sharing her idea on social media, Ms Lott has been praised for her creation by other fellow parents – but her post has also attracted some negative remarks.
‘I really didn’t think my little hack would be so well received when I shared it but there has also been quite a bit of negative feedback from some people,’ she said.
‘I wanted to point out that my children are being raised to be good helping members of our family. They are taught that it takes all five of us to run the house, not just me and their dad.
‘There are lots of things that my kids do such as cleaning their rooms, helping with putting groceries and clothes away and packing up the toy room that they don’t get money for.
‘These are the things that they do because they are a part of our team and they help run this house.’