Kids More Eager to Do Household Chores with Help of New Family Chore System: 'Mom, Can I Help Around the House?'

Janet Nusbaum, professional organizer and consultant, offers parents a new step-by-step guide on getting kids to cooperate and eagerly participate in organizing and household chores in her workbook, ‘Mom, Can I Help Around the House?’ As a single mother of two Russian-adopted children, Nusbaum extended her years of experience and knowledge in organizing and task management into a guide to help parents better educate, and garner cooperation from, kids who normally resist doing chores.

Nusbaum struggled with her own children who, coming from an orphanage, had not been exposed to family life or having responsibilities for household chores or the activities of daily living. Nusbaum realized the urgent need to begin shaping rules in her home that were child-focused, and set an expectation for active participation and order from her children. From her organizing work with families, Janet knew that she was not alone in her frustrated attempts to guide her children through day-to-day tasks that each child was responsible for her own chores without being nagged or constantly prodded.

She found that giving kids well-defined and concrete responsibilities based on age and abilities, radically helped develop critical life-skills like self-sufficiency, self-esteem, and caring for others. “Setting the expectation for children to take responsibility for their part in household chores has a powerful effect.” Nusbaum conceded. She began sharing her chore system with clients and friends, and they too experienced the same positive transformations in their family. ‘Mom, Can I Help Around the House?’ resulted from Nusbaum’s collaborative knowledge, experiences and education in-and results from-preparing children to cooperatively participate in being helpful, and to create order and harmony in whatever they undertake.

‘Mom, Can I Help Around the House?’ offers readers:
- Ways to increase a child’s ownership of household tasks;
- Ways parents can remove themselves from the chore wars;
- How to stop teaching their children to be resistant to doing chores;
- How to save hours per week by developing a team of cheerful helpers
- How to increase a child’s independence and self-esteem;
- How to calm the chaos with routines and systems that work.

The book is structured with cogent advice on setting up an age-appropriate responsibility system, one that expands as the child matures, and includes advice on discipline and positive enforcement. ‘Mom, Can I Help Around the House’ is a practical workbook, which includes interactive worksheets and step-by-step guidance to empower parents to create a child-based responsibility and rewards system that does not participate in bribery.

Nusbaum stated, “The child is taught to create and maintain order in the home, essentially, as a self-empowered and knowledgeable participant. Parents are reminded to never allow their child to escape from their responsibilities.” ‘Mom, Can I Help Around the House,’ supports this resolve through proactive positive reinforcement, but also with a fallback position if the child fails to complete assigned tasks, enabling the parent to remove some of the enjoyable benefits and privileges the child would normally receive for completing assigned responsibilities.

Jessica Rodgers, mom of four, who implemented techniques from ‘Mom, Can I Help Around the House?‘ stated, “Wow! This is exactly what we needed to teach my boys responsibilities in our home. Janet thought of everything with the ‘Mom, Can I Help Around the House?’ system-from a master home maintenance inventory-to ways to teach my boys about money. My boys are such a help around the house now – I didn’t give them enough credit for all they are capable of.”

Nusbaum summed it up by saying, “If your son can operate an iPod, he can easily learn to mop a floor (and should), if your daughter can learn to operate a computer game, she can learn to do the dishes (and should). What is more valuable to your child, his Xbox skills or learning life-long skills that prepare them for the rest of his life?”

‘Mom, Can I Help Around the House?‘ can be found at http://www.KidsandChores.net or, http://www.SimplifiedSpaces.net.

Janet Nusbaum is a professional organizer, and owner of Simplified Spaces, a consulting firm specializing in home and office organization, facilitation of transitions for boomers and beyond, and she is the proprietor of an e-store – The Simplified Home store, specializing in unique hand-picked organizing products. She is available for interview by contacting (317) 867-1540. ’Mom, Can I Help Around the House?’ can be found at http://www.kidsandchores.net, or contact the author for a review.