The one thing parenting books don't tell you...

By BERN MORLEY

Here’s something the Parenting books don’t tell you – children are messy.

Not once was I told to prepare myself for the constant and general untidiness that my life as a mother would become. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a wonderful kind of messy, in fact, to me, an untidy house is a sign of a lived in and much loved home. This doesn’t mean that at the end of each day I don’t sit down, look around myself and wonder out loud what the name of the hurricane was that appears to have ripped through my home. I then set about taking stock, cleaning up and preparing myself and the house, for the next day – so we can do it all again.

For instance, it is insanely fun to make pancakes, popcorn and playdoh with my six year old son. What isn’t as much fun however is finding and removing petrified playdoh that has been ‘lovingly’ left for the cat underneath the couch. I also wasn’t quite prepared for the minefield of Lego and muddy football boots and unidentifiable substances on the television screen. Again, I know this is a beautiful signature of my boys’ busy and frantic lives, I am just astounded at *how* much mess two little humans can make. Also, I’m fairly sure at no stage did anyone alert me to the fact that the beautiful bedroom I had painstakingly designed for my 13 year old daughter as a baby girl would one day be nothing more than a utensil wasteland for our family’s forks, teaspoons and inexplicably, vegetable peelers.

And for so long I have simply gone about cleaning up these untidy areas myself, never requesting help and it never crossed my mind that I should simply ask my children to help me out. This of course, is my fault. I let it get to this point. I have three children, of varying ages and flavours and often, it was just easier and quicker to do it myself.

I’ve decided though that it is time. Time not only for them to start helping out, but also time to be rewarded for their efforts accordingly.

My husband and I sat down and determined the chores that were done on a daily and weekly basis that the kids could easily do and make our lives a little easier in the process. We came up with the following tasks:

Daily

• Tidy rooms
• Wash dishes
• Dry dishes
• Take out the rubbish
• Clean out the kitty litter tray
• Put used toilet rolls in the bin

Weekly

• Clean showers and basins with wipes 
• Clean TV/computer screens with proper wipes
• Vacuum Rooms
• Clean the Stainless Steel fridge.
• Clean mirrors

It wasn’t a complicated or overloaded schedule, it was just stuff that they could handle and learn to do properly if done often enough.

We decided the fair way to compensate was, if they could tick off their particular chores on their chart each week, earn a dollar for every year of their age. Believe me, it only took one week for this to sink in. Before I knew it, the bathroom basin no longer had toothpaste in it, the shower glass was sparkling and the television screens were crystal clear. The best thing, with all the amazing VIVA® products, these chores were incredibly easy for them to undertake.

The house is clean, the kids have cash. It’s what you can call a win/win situation.

Clean on the go: With VIVA® Products you can fit cleaning in with your busy lifestyle as you can clean on the go to avoid that big Saturday clean. Clean the shower with VIVA® Shower Fast Wipes when you are taking one! Or get the kids to clean the mirrors after they’ve brushed their teeth.

Convenience factor: Wipe format means it’s not such a chore to clean – you don’t need to use various products like a cloth/spray/etc to complete a task. Just wipe and throw away! .. Unless its VIVA® Glass and Mirror Wipes which you can re-use up to 3 times.

Keeping products where you use them: Ability to easily store VIVA products in relevant locations. VIVA® TV & Computer Wipes fit amongst other DVDs so you can remember to clean and it’s not such a hassle.

Australian mums do 85% of all housework. That’s why VIVA® products created a calendar to help you with house cleaning delegation. Sign up now for your chance to WIN $1,000 and take the 30 Day Share the Cleaning Challenge.

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What chores did you do as a kid? What chores do your kids do now – and how do you get them to do them?