Momservation: A chore by any other name will still be met with resistance.
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Our family loves the show Duck Dynasty. Fun fact: Moving from our first home 10 years ago I heckled Hubby for hanging onto his old “Duckmen” VHS tapes (Phil Robertson’s early duck hunting how-to videos) asking, “Who sits and watches rednecks sitting in duck blinds blowing duck calls?” We should’ve bought stock in Duck Commander then.
Anyway, on a recent episode of Duck Dynasty, Phil tricks his grandson and his grandson’s friend into doing chores around the house by telling them each chore helped build skills for football.
So, taking a page from Phil Robertson’s highly successful playbook, I’ve compiled a list of ways to trick kids into doing chores that will condition them for a successful Easter:
10 Tricks for Getting Chores Done
(Easter Theme)
- Matching Sock Hunt. Convince kids that finding the matching clean socks in the laundry pile will fine tune their egg hunting skills.
- Lights and Darks Separating Challenge. Tell the kids quickly learning to separate their light dirty clothes from their dark ones will help them more quickly separate out the black licorice jelly beans before they contaminate the rest of the yummy jelly beans.
- Shoe Roll. Instead of picking up all their shoes around the house, have them roll them into their closets—good practice for winning the Easter egg roll.
- Hazardous Waste Race. See which kid is the quickest in picking up all the dog poo in the yard so their Easter eggs won’t accidently get covered in “chocolate.”
- Weed Pull Contest. The more ground uncovered by invasive weeds, the easier it will be to find the eggs and surveillance potential Peter Rabbit hiding spots.
- Dust Bunny Bonus. Could there be chocolate eggs hiding near every swipe of the duster on this search for dust bunnies?! (Shoot! Those bunnies are so sneaky! Try again the next day—make sure to tip toe!)
- Clean Room Test. The Easter Bunny has been known to pass up houses with dirty rooms—are the kids going to risk it and test the rumor, possibly missing a visit from Peter Rabbit?
- Dishwasher Load/Unload Time Trial. Loading and unloading the dishwasher uses the same motions as finding and putting eggs in the Easter basket—great way to condition for quicker egg gathering!
- Pick-up the House and Put It Away Sprint. Good practice for Easter egg hunting by racing from room to room, finding the stuff they left all over, and quickly completing the task—sooner it’s done the sooner the haul can be assessed.
- Toy Toss. Work with a sibling partner to collect toys strewn all over the yard, tossing them to each other until they all get put back away—great hand-eye coordination practice for the egg toss.
Happy Easter! May your children ace Easter with all their good practice and conditioning!