I’m sharing how you can motivate your teenager to help out around the house, with Zep Garbage Odor Eliminator, as part of a sponsored post for Socialstars #ZepSocialstars
I don’t know exactly when my sweet, sweet boy became a brooding teenager. I feel as though it was an overnight transformation rather than a gradual shift from mommy-pleasing little boy to mad-at-the-world-teen. Styles has never been the best at keeping his room clean, but he certainly wasn’t the worst of the Davis children at this task. At the very least, whenever I asked him to get his room picked up, he’d pick a thing or two up with a smile on his face. Now I get a full reenactment of that day’s Good Mythical Morning followed by a dissertation on why dogs don’t really have feelings, backed up by every other stalling tactic known to mankind including the ever-popular-among-men “but I have to poop now” syndrome.
I’m over it.
The babies are awful at keeping their room clean, I can’t keep up with the laundry, let alone my ever-growing to-do list, and Kyle’s so-called “off season” was really code for “off from familial duties” because we saw less of him during this “off season” than we did during high season. In a very small nutshell, I need help, and I need it to not come with a two-ton attitude.
One of my greatest challenges with parenting is finding ways to motivate my children to get them to do what I need them to do. What motivates them to do well in school? What motivates them to keep their rooms tidy? What motivates them to help scoop the Great Dane poop from the back yard? What motivates them to unload the dishwasher without launching into a full-scale military defense?
It seems that their motivations are as fickle as a Florida rainstorm, and it feels impossible to nail one good motivation down. Then the unthinkable happened. Styles spent spring break with my dad and step-mom and had his phone taken away a few days into the trip. You guys? He didn’t die. He lived to tell the tale of love and loss of his beloved cell phone. His life-source was taken away and he didn’t die a horrid Crossy Road-type death. As a matter of fact, he thrived. Did you hear that? He THRIVED.
He, like most teenagers, are allowed to put such heavy emphasis on the importance of their electronics. We are afraid to take them away lest they turn into social pariahs and become the outcasts that we envision in our worst parenting nightmares. A mother never wants her teen to become the person dressed in dirty rags begging for friends on the side of the road, but that exactly what our teens are doomed to become if we remove from them their ever-loving life-source.
I realized that if I want help around here, I’m going to have to bribe my tribe to help me get it done, and I hold the key to making that happen.
Technology.
I hold the key to all electronics and technology in this house, and it is my duty to make my own job as a mother and housewife easier. That’s where a Teen Chore Chart comes into play. I have this awesome Command Center that sits right at our back door. It reminds me to pay bills, holds school papers that need to be returned, and is now home to our teen’s chore chart. Each chore listed on the chart is worth 10 minutes of personal time on his electronics. When he completes all 5 chores, he is able to be on his phone for nearly an hour a day. If I come up with other chores that need to be done, that time can increase. If he only manages to make his bed in the morning, but fails to scoop the massive piles of dung that our Great Dane leaves behind, he only gets to enjoy 10 minutes on his phone.
The great part about this simple tactic is that my teen now controls his own destiny. Want to text your girlfriend? Go scoop some poop. Want to binge-watch YouTube videos? Go unload the dishwasher. OH, did you just say someone sent you a DM in Instagram? I guess you better run the trash to the curb!
My teen is now the master of his own destiny, which is pretty sweet, because he has nobody to blame for his lack of social connectivity but himself.
Of course, he has to do everything the right way if he wants to receive “payment” for his services. It’s not enough just to scoop the poop out of the yard, you have to finish it off with a sprinkle of Zep Commercial Garbage Odor Eliminator, otherwise the smell of Dane poo will singlehandedly make it impossible to enjoy the backyard. It’s not enough to just take the trash to the curb, you have to be willing to dump 4-6oz of Zep Garbage Odor Eliminator in the bottom of the trash can to help soak up any dank smells that might come your way. What good is doing a chore if it doesn’t smell like citronella and cherry after you’re done cleaning it? I figure, if you’re going to get your kid involved in chores around the house, it’s best to get them involved in every aspect from the very beginning. That’s why the last time I was at Home Depot, I asked Styles to help me pick out something to make our poo can smell better. He wisely chose Zep Commercial Garbage Odor Eliminator, which retails for $4.97, and works to absorb any leaks and spills in the trash can. It also contains a long lasting fragrance that even the most sensitively-nosed mom can enjoy. Basically, if you have a poo can, a diaper pail, or a trash can where you throw food you forgot to eat from the back of the refrigerator? You need this stuff. Might as well start training your family the right way in every aspect of the word, right?
For your very own Teen Chore chart, click here to download , and print the chart off. I like mine inside our Control Center dealiejobber, but if you just want to tack it to the wall and print a new one off every week, you can do that too. To personalize it, upload into PicMonkey and use the Amatic Small Caps font to fill the chores in, then print it off yourself to give to your teen.
Now stop being such a slacker and make your teen get to work! Hey, if you had to as a kid, they should too, right?
[…] just learned to get smart about it. I have a daily chore list that I follow, and I have a chore chart for my teenager to help me out around here too. I mean, I don’t know about you, but this is exactly why I had […]