Today I am reviewing a product that has been helping families get organized together since 1990. It’s called Creative Changes, and they offer a great selection of chore charts and other organizational aides that are specifically designed to get your children involved in helping with home management.
I specifically remember when my parents realized a parenting mistake they had been making and their attempts (which were largely in vain, I’m sad to say) to correct them. I was 10 and my brother was 12. And that’s how old we were when my parents decided that we should get involved in helping keep the house up. Yup….our very first chores were given to us that late in the game. It didn’t go over well. We had no idea why we would be needed to help with things like vacuuming and taking out the trash. That had ALWAYS been done for us.
The chore implementation never really did go smoothly. We started helping out more around the house, but not because my parents were able to successfully hand off any of the chores. We would do what they asked when they got too fed up and yelled for someone to do something NOW! That’s pretty much how it worked.
I definitely don’t want that to be how things go in my house. But if I don’t teach Darah from a young age that she has responsibilities as a member of the house, it will be all too easy for me to take the same path my parents took and just keep doing it all myself.
That’s why I’m glad for companies like Creative Changes and their chore charts that have been working for decades. While Darah is too young to use these charts, it has inspired me to already start talking with her about putting away toys when we are finished, and how cleaning up is an important element on choosing to play with something.
The Creative Changes charts are easy to stick on the refrigerator and make use of dry erase markers so you can re-use them again and again. They make use of pictures to help little ones know what their chores are on any given day. You can also use stickers to help kids get closer to their incentive (if you choose to use incentives as part of your chore assignments).
I will say that the Creative Changes website is in pretty desperate need of an overhaul. It looks very dated, and the commercial on the site looks straight out of 1990. I’d love to see this updated so that potential customers aren’t scared away. It’s fine for a product to be useful for so long, but the marketing techniques need to be changed to speak to new generations of parents! I’ve seen these products firsthand, and want to encourage you not to be dissuaded by the antique look of the site. The charts, themselves, are really helpful and worthwhile, I promise!
Buy it!: You can pick up the Rewarding Kids Responsibility Kit for just $24.95. I think it is money well-spent if you maintain the discipline to really implement it with your kids. You will get some much-needed help around the house, and your kids will start to take on more ownership and pride in how their home looks. They will also develop good habits that their future spouses will thank you for!
Win it!: One lucky Stuff Parents is going to win the Rewarding Kids Responsibility Kit you see featured here! Yay!