Kids are kids

Mom of 6: 

Help, kids won’t do chores! Even if they do them, they do them half-heartedly.

Answer:

They’re kids. Kids are kids. Even if they do their best, we might have to redo. Don’t take it too hard on yourself or your family. Don’t be too serious. Let go a little. It’s not easy for anyone, not even adults. At the end of the day, what matters are relationships and godly values. Yes, you can teach them about the spirit of excellence, responsibility and integrity. But like it or not, they need to be carefully supervised. 

Shower them with praise. Even employees are motivated by a salary. Kids are motivated by praise and relationships. Sometimes even money and rewards don’t work (unless that reward is more time spent with mom or dad doing something fun— that seems to work with us).

And if you’re too hard on them, it will definitely strain your relationship with them. So put lots of time into building that relationship through games and play with them before laying a whole bunch of chores on them. The foundation of highly responsible kids is strong relationships. And strong relationships can be achieved through playing with them. After all, kids are kids.