Kids and Chores

Okay, this is something I have always thought a lot about. Do you think kids should do chores?? How often, what kind, should they be scheduled or just when we tell them to??

I struggle with this question. My childhood was riddled with Saturdays when we weren't allowed to play because the garage, basement, bedroom, etc. needed cleaning. Funny when I think about it that my ADD brother and my ADD self were plopped down into a room that was completely totalled and told to "clean" it. We, of course, never got done in less than a weekend and did more looking around in horror than actually working.

This isn't how we work things at my house. Yes, I still spend time looking around in horror, but the kids are used mostly as manual labor. I work the plan, they "pick up" and such.

They do have to regularly unload the dishwasher which I load since they are so bad at it. I think this will change in 2010. They are gonna be in charge of all the dishes. They also take laundry up to bedrooms. They put their own away and anyone else's goes on their beds to be put away before they go to sleep (in theory).

So, back to the original question...How many and what kinds of chores should kids be responsible for??