I'm tired of cleaning.

Do you have kids that help out around the house? If you had kids and gave them chores, at what age did you start? If you plan to have kids, do you think you'll put them to work doing dishes? So many questions! But, it's supposed to be a good thing, isn't it? It teaches responsibility, makes them take better care of things, helps keep the house clean. Is there really a down side to this concept? Other than a grumpy kid who doesn't want to sweep the floor, I don't see one!

My children are still small so we haven't quite gotten the hang of this yet, but I'd certainly like to! While my youngest is only one year old, he's actually quite helpful at times. One of his favorite things to do is unload the dishwasher. Although it does take me six times longer than it would without him handing me each spoon one by one, he's so sweet and excited to help as he says, "Hea go!" with each dish he passes. Some days I admit, I'd much rather stick him in front of the tv watching Mickey while I scurry to put things away, but I try to embrace all these little things whenever my patience will let me. Then there's Mason who is now three and is the spitting image of the fiery red head cliche. He snubs me with a turn of the cheek at the mere suggestion of picking up his toys, and within minutes I'll find him organizing the coat closet and showing off how he lined up everyone's shoes. With a little encouragement, I can still get Mase to help out when I really try but it's slowly becoming more difficult as he gets older. Which brings me to Owen. Sweet, loving, sensitive, little Owen. Ha. The word 'clean' sends this boy into a rage. At five years old, he would rather sit in time out for three days over putting his superheroes in the bucket like I asked. No exaggeration needed. One time I remember saying, "But didn't your teacher talk about putting things away and helping people?" and of course he informed me, "Mom, that's not what she meant!" Oh, my mistake!

What do you think? Did I wait too long and five years old is really past the point of teaching about chores? It's never too late, I suppose. So, with the right tools I'm hoping to get these kids to pick up (as my parents always said) that pig sty of a room! And maybe a few other things around the house because honestly, I'm tired of cleaning. Here's some fun ideas I found around the web to get things started....

 Do you have a chore plan in place? Let me know if you have a great system that works, or if you'd just like to suggest some ideas to kick these kids into high gear!!

***UPDATE 2/20***

Owen swept the kitchen floor!!!