Want to know the fastest way to get rid of your chores?
Dump them on the kids. (I’m only half-joking here.)
Seriously – the quickest route to you doing less work as a mom is to get other people in on the game.
To turn yourself into a middle manager of sorts who helps other people (like, little people) get chores done while you yourself don’t lift a finger in the process.
(Okay, okay, you will have to lift those fingers as you’re demonstrating the correct way to spray the mirror.)
Interested? I thought so.
Let’s take a closer look at the chore delegation process.
Start with A
To begin with, the first thing you want to do is make a list of what you’re doing. Try to make it as comprehensive as possible.
For example: Don’t just say “grocery shopping.”
List out….
- the menu planning,
- checking pantry stocks,
- asking what people want to eat,
- browsing through cookbooks or food blogs,
- coming up with an ingredients list,
- comparing that against your pantry contents,
- seeing what else you need this week for lunch/breakfast/snacks,
- compiling the grocery list,
- splitting said list into separate parts if you hit more than one store,
- going out and fetching the groceries,
- and unloading everything once you’re home.
Whew!
If you want more help than you’re currently getting (and you do, right?), you need to know all the things you’re doing.
Otherwise you can’t point out what someone else could be doing for you. Got it?
So make a giant list – a nice, scribbly, un-pretty list – of every. single. thing you can possibly think of that currently resides on your plate.
All of it.
(Now do you see why you’re exhausted and stressed all the time? Look at that workload, girl!)
Move on to B
And now that we’ve got the history here, let’s do a little digging.
Why are you the person dusting the bookshelves?
Watering the house plants?
Feeding the dog?
Can’t the kids do some of those things? I’m sure they’re perfectly capable of it. They may not want to do it, but they can do it….
(Yes, I know you have to keep some of the chores. Until you’ve got preteens and teenagers, you won’t be handing off kitchen chopping duties with the good knives or any driving errands. My point still stands.)
You need more help. They need more life skills. It’s a win-win.
Take a good, hard look at ¾ of your ginormous, ultimate task list. All the stuff you’re doing, week in and week out.
What’s the lowest common ability level that can accomplish this?
(I’m thinking the 5-and-under crowd, your early elementary-school-ers, the tween/preteen crew….)
Mark up your list with initials by each chore so that you know who’s capable of what.
(At the end of this stage, you may want to rewrite or retype that list so it’s legible again! Just a hint for step C.)
Finish up with C
Armed with your knowledge plus that newly-segmented chore list, you are now ready to tackle the lion. In other words, drop the bomb on your kids.
Guess what: they get to start helping mommy out. Whether they like it or not. End of story.
You need more help, they need more life skills. It’s a win-win. Okay? You’re not torturing them.
So sit down with the kids and start handing out chores.
(Or let them read the list on their own and initial the tasks they’re interested in learning. But be prepared to step in and mandate a certain workload if the only thing they want to do is dust!)
Make sure the little ones don’t get over-ambitious, and watch that your older kids are distributing the workload fairly.
(In other words, don’t let the responsible one sign up for everything!)
And presto, you’ve got your new system!
One where you’re doing far fewer chores than you used to. You can thank me later.
(Actually, put a hold on that thank-you note till you get the kids accustomed to their new chore load out – you’re going to spend just as much time, those first few weeks, getting them in the groove as you used to spend on doing it all by yourself! But once the kid delegation system picks up steam….)
Think about it – life without a mountain of housekeeping, cooking, and maintenance chores every single day.
A life marked by far more freedom than you’ve ever experienced before (with kids in the house, that is).
Doesn’t that sound enticing? Isn’t that worth working toward?
I’d say it is – and I bet you would too.
So write up that chore list, parcel it out between the kids (and yourself – sharp knives, remember?), and put in the work upfront to teach them how to do everything.
And then sit back, relax, and enjoy your life!
Your delegation strategy is succeeding.
