Family Democracy & Economics

We are blessed in our family to have no dishwasher. Work colleagues often ask me, "how do you work full time & manage a family, do you have a housekeeper?" My response is always the same, "why would I need a housekeeper when I have 4 children!". I believe we do our children a great disservice if they are not taught how to be responsible and share the load of housework.

In our family economics there are jobs for love and jobs for payment. Jobs for love are by pure virtue of 'being apart of a family' include; keeping ones room tidy, being responsible for ones clothes, vacuuming, washing & drying up, kitchen duties, rubbish duties, laundry duties etc. Jobs for payment include; mowing the lawn, extra gardening, cleaning windows, washing & vacuuming the car, mopping etc 

Admittedly I do pay my eldest daughter to do a larger portion of the housework, however this was by her request.......

Miss 12yrs last year needed extra cash for a special item she wanted to save & purchase so she asked what jobs were on offer for pocket money. Then quickly recanted and made the suggestion, that she would just do a week's work of jobs, then I could assess her work and pay her what I thought it was all worth! Very generous offer I thought, not expecting to see much effort. She proved me very wrong! 


My daughter morphed into, 'Alice from the Brady Bunch' and I felt like I was watching myself! All those years of modelling how to peel potatoes, how I like the kitchen cleaned, how I fold clothes etc....Miss 12yrs did everything, and I mean literally, everything! She vacuumed, she mopped (every night), the kitchen was spotless day & night, the washing was done, hung out, brought in, folded neatly....she even rang me while driving home from work to ask what dinner prep needed to be done! Honestly it was an outstanding effort and I paid her $50 for her week's work. She had earned it. However she also realistically knew she couldn't sustain that effort every week, nor could our family budget afford that amount each week, so it has since toned down to a more sustainable rate and fee. I still would rather pay my children to do the work then an outsider. 

Our most recent event in family democracy was just 2 nights ago. With a new year and school term giving opportunity to review the after dinner kitchen duties. Like many families have tried every roster under the sun in an attempt to keep the washing & drying up shared equitably! Instead of suggesting anything, I put it to the children to come up with their best solution to getting the job done! Listening to them discuss with each other, priceless! In the end, to maximise man power & speed of duties, yet to ensure a 'night off' each, was the agreed priority, so they came up with the idea of 3 on, 1 off on a rotation basis, using the calendar to help them keep track of it! I was very impressed with their negotiation skills, solution and implementation!

Well it has only been two nights! Time is yet to tell how long the democratic solution lasts before Mum has to step in as dictator! I'll keep you posted.......