Chores in a blended family

Written by guest author Debbie Yocum on the weekly topic "The Chore Battle":

Chores! It doesn't bring the kids running to the kitchen like the word ice cream does but it is a necessary word in our household. With a house full of kids there is bound to be a house full of chores. When it comes to picking up the mess that is made by one or more of the kids I stop to wonder if I have two more kids than the six that live here...one has the name "Not Me" and the other has a name of "I don't know".

Those are the names that get mentioned when I find a room that looks like a tornado went through it. "Who did this?" I ask and the response is always the same "I don't know" and "Not me."

Debbie Yocum
Guest Author

To make matters a little more complicated, I have two step-children that live with us 50 percent of the time. Most of the time it is great and everyone gets along. Some of the time we have a little conflict because the rules in one house is a little different than the rules in the other home that they live in the other 50 percent of the time.

It is hard on everyone when you are raising children from a blended family and not all the parents are on the same page. I love my stepkids more than they know and I am lucky to have them but I also know that there could be a lot of trouble when it comes to assigning chores in a blended family. It is a place where conflict could happen really easily.

Personally I think that you are being selfish when you don't make your kids do chores. It might be easier to just do it for them but what is that teaching them? I was told once that in our children's life is a window and that window is completely open when they are born. The window closes a little more each year until the year that they move out on their own and by then, the window is closed. It is really hard to go back and try to open that window so we might as well do our best while we still can and while that window is still open.

Assigning chores and following through with them is a part of that. It is great to be good in school and in sports but it is a part of life to be good at chores too because they don't go away, ever. They will always be a part of our life because they are a part of what makes us a responsible adult.