Get your Teen To mow that grass!!

This is for a friend who asks how to get her teen to mow the grass.

Ok I don't have this problem yet but probably will soon. How do we motivate the teen in our family to go outside and mow that grass. The easy way as we all know would be to bribe them with money... oh yes the money thing almost always works, but just how much is it worth to you and why exactly do we have to pay our own son to mow our grass. Well depends on how bad you want it to be cut or can it wait another week. What happened to the days when whole families joined forces on the weekend to do household chores -- the oldest child mowing the lawn with Dad and the youngest child getting dusting duty? This is how it was when I was growing up. Nowadays some teenagers can barely get off the couch to change the television channel.

Here is some information I found. Families need to discuss chores when there is no fighting, even the kids often agree they should do more. Here is a quote "Work really is fulfilling. It makes us feel good, And so the goal of working needs to be pointed out to kids: If you're not lazy, if you do work, you will feel better about yourself." Good luck with that one... if it works all the more power to you.

Kids get comfortable with chores, but you have to introduce them to the routine of organizing early. Suggestions online say to start out by doing the chores with you kids and praise them for the work they do. Positive changes could break even the laziest teenager of this kind of bad behavior. The reason kids don't like doing chores is the same reason adults don't like doing chores: household tasks are generally boring.

Let’s face it; the satisfaction of getting the dishes done is not a very big reward in this day and age of video games and instant gratification. While that doesn't mean kids shouldn't do chores, it does help to partly explain why they resist them. Another big reason is because children feel like they're being taken away from something they’d like to do in order to do something that’s not exciting or stimulating. And most kids don't solve that problem by using their time more efficiently to complete tasks quickly. Instead, you’ll see them showing disinterest and dragging their feet.

Here's another quote "Getting your child to do chores becomes a battle when you allow it to grow into one. If you’re standing over your kids telling them over and over again to “empty the dishwasher, mow the lawn, clean the kitchen”—and they’re digging their heels in and still not complying—you are in that battle, make no mistake about it."

If your child is not doing his chores, you simply stop everything, tell him to have a seat and talk to him about it. Ask him what he thinks is going on and what's getting in his way of doing his assigned tasks. Find out what his plans are after he’s finished and try to motivate him toward getting the work done so he move onto what he really wants to do. Appealing to a child’s self-interests—rather than explaining the abstract concept of responsibility or duty—is generally much more effective for kids. I believe there should be a time to do chores in the evening or in the morning. Personally, I think that evenings are best during the school year, because doing chores in the morning just adds to the stress and intensity of the schedule. Summertime is easier in some ways because you’re not contending with homework. So in the summer, chores should be done first, before anything else gets done.

Yes this means  before the video games or any electronics go on, make it a rule that your child’s bed has to be made, his clothes should be in the hamper and his room is tidy. This way, he’s starting to learn that before he can have free time, his responsibilities have to be met. Again, you never want to be pulling your child back from something exciting in order to do something mundane and boring. Rather, you want to get them to work through the mundane and boring things to get to something exciting. Last but not least don't turn doing chores into punishment...

Well I hope all this information was useful to all the parents out there. Some information was pulled offline and most was written by me. Like I said I don't have a teen yet but my days are coming and I feel for all my friends with teens. Please comment and let me know what you think about this blog.

I will end with my opinion... Pay that boy.... its much easier and you are almost guaranteed the lawn is going to get mowed. thanks again for reading.

   

You think your teen would mow the yard if he had one of these....

 NOW THAT'S MOTIVATION!!