{"id":2209,"date":"2011-05-16T19:42:39","date_gmt":"2011-05-17T02:42:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/?p=2209"},"modified":"2025-11-02T21:02:53","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T04:02:53","slug":"introduction-to-chancefategod","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/?p=2209","title":{"rendered":"Chores Sticks… Introduction to Chance\/Fate\/God"},"content":{"rendered":"

My oldest was complaining that he always got stuck doing the hard jobs and his brothers got the easy ones.\u00a0 I listened and came up with a bit of a solution.\u00a0 The kids are both pleased and NOT pleased.\u00a0 lol
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This solution was also introduced because the custody was changed at the mediation.\u00a0 I now have my boys Monday – Thursday and my ex picks them up from school Friday and has them for the weekend.\u00a0 I get them every 2nd & 5th weekend of the month and if my ex gets a job (cross your fingers!) then he’ll pick them up from me when he can on Friday.\u00a0 Better for the kids, easier on the ex, and leaves me with more free weekends a month!\u00a0 Kind of a win\/win in some ways.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

But it also meant I wasn’t going to have them on weekends to clean the house anymore.\u00a0 So I devised a plan to get a little bit of it done every day I had them instead of one big day every 2 weeks.\u00a0\u00a0 And I introduced them to the concept of gambling.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Chore Sticks<\/p><\/div>\n

I created Chore Sticks.\u00a0 Coloring Popsicle sticks (been collecting them for craft possibilities for 10 years so I have MANY!) into blue ones and orange ones.\u00a0 I them Sharpied chores onto them.\u00a0\u00a0 Blue Chore Sticks are for daily chores, each child picks 4 a day.\u00a0 Orange Chore Sticks are for weekly chores, each child picks one a day.\u00a0 At the end of the day Blue sticks go back into the pot for tomorrow and finished Orange sticks get set aside for next week.<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the beginning of the day they close their eyes, reach in and pick a chore.\u00a0 And that chore is their responsibility ALL day.\u00a0 If its load the dishwasher, they have to stay on that.. all day.\u00a0 OR they can leave it to the end of the day, but its their chore.\u00a0 AND if they get a chore that holds up other people, they cannot put if off, but have to do it right off so it won’t inconvenience anyone.
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So now when they complain, “Awwww!\u00a0 Why did you give me THIS chore!” <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I get to reply, “I didn’t give you that chore!\u00a0 Fate gave you that chore.\u00a0 It was only by Chance that you picked it”<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Then I point out that maybe tomorrow they will get a chore that Fate makes irrelevant.\u00a0 For instance, Conor pulled Water the Plants today.\u00a0 But Fate made it rain\u00a0 so he didn’t have to.\u00a0 And if this “gardener” is too exhausted to garden & you pick the “Assist with Gardening” chore.. well, you lucked out!
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So no one can accuse me of “babying” the youngest with the easier chores.\u00a0 But apparently his charm is extending to the cosmos.\u00a0 He keeps getting them!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

And the one they hate the most?\u00a0\u00a0 Mom’s General Assistant.\u00a0 Basically my slave for a day!\u00a0\u00a0 Muahahahaha
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My oldest was complaining that he always got stuck doing the hard jobs and his brothers got the easy ones.\u00a0 I listened and came up with a bit of a solution.\u00a0 The kids are both pleased and NOT pleased.\u00a0 lol … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-joy-of-family"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2209"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3111,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2209\/revisions\/3111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}