How to Encourage a Teenager to Help Clean the House

If you feel like you're running a hotel from your home with constant cooking, cleaning and laundry, teach your teenager to help with the responsibility of maintaining a house.

Difficulty: Moderately challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Construction Paper
• Markers
• Pads Of Paper
• Poster Boards
• Markers

1. Make a list of chores that need to be done in your house. Include jobs such as taking out the garbage, doing laundry, cooking meals and doing yard work. Include rooms and areas that require regular cleaning such as the garage and car, bedrooms, and family areas. Rewrite the list on a large permanent sheet for all family members to see.

2. Divide the list evenly with all participating family members present. Make slips of paper with chores on them and let each family member choose a chore. Discuss the chores and provide solutions for sharing duties that are undesirable such as taking out the garbage, bathing a pet or cleaning bathrooms.

3. Create rewards for doing chores and consequences for not doing them. Decide as a group how chores will be scored and how rewards and consequences will be distributed. Parents as well as children should have consequences.

4. Meet as a family once a week for the first month using the chore chart. Praise your children for completing chores. Make any changes in chores that are not getting done and rotate undesirable chores.

Tips & Warnings

• Think of a big reward for your teenager to receive once a month for helping with house duties. Rewards such as money, clothes or activities work well with this age group.
• Be flexible and trade off chores if another family member has a planned activity.
• Create your own consequences if you are using this as a way to break bad cleaning habits already in place.