Anybody using Chorewars or Choremonster?

[Maj. Bloodnok]

Hi:

I've got three kids: 10, 7, and 3. The older two are big gamers. They also have some developmental issues: the 10 year old has ADHD, anxiety disorder, and a touch of OCD, and the younger one has PDD/NOS and ADHD. Getting them to do chores can be next to impossible. My dear wife and I are trying to register with Choremonster and work out various details. The big one is scoring and prizes: how much value to give to a particular chore, and how to value the IRL rewards. (How many points for a small toy, how many points for a big toy, etc.) Has anyone else used either of these games, and how did you handle these issues?

[Gobnait]

I was on chore wars, but mainly it was to make my to-do list "fun" since I seem to respond better to technical gadgetry. Then I printed off a table and used magnetic markers so I was able to keep track without getting on the computer in the middle of chores. My game is fair competition of two child-free households where one person has the burden of maintenance. (I have a husband, but his responsibilities are to pay attention to laundry and keep his mess small enough that I don't bitch at him.) I set my chores up with dailies, weeklies, weekend-specific, and a bonus category for the rare weird chores like taking a furnace brush to the refrigerator motor.

The site recommends point-weighting by time and difficulty. One thing I'd recommend is to give each child "class specific" quests and make sure they each have the potential to earn equal amounts of points. I think if you don't assign monsters, you can set trinket drops to 100%, and different trinkets can buy certain things; if they clean their rooms but don't have their backpacks ready, they get different perks than vice versa.

I'd also recommend small chunks; a quest to sweep the floor separate from making the floor able to be swept, and dusting also be one task. Perhaps if you had a wishlist of what each child must do, we could hand you the answer. Typing it out will at least help make it easier to think about.

Maybe you could make your scoring physical. Many dollar stores sell checkers, different colored army men, dinosaurs and farm set, stupid small things like that. Let each boy have a vase, he gets a checker for one task, a dinosaur for another... set up some way so that they don't steal from each other. You could also use coins, it's reasonable to use gold dollars if you use a bank teller at any point.

[Gobnait]

This is my chore wars. Again, it's a somewhat-fair two household competition where one person bears the burden of maintenance. I had all points divisible by five, but I re-adjusted it to divisible by four because it was possible to kiss the site's 500-point limit if all dailies and weeklies were hit on Friday.

Daily

Attending to the dishes

Daily: either washing the dishes, loading them into the dishwasher, or putting clean dishes away.

24 XP

Busting the clutter

Daily: re-arrange, sort, organize, or purge to the equivalent work as sorting one file tote.

20 XP

Cleaning the floor

Daily: apply the appropriate tool to one or more floors of the house.

12 XP

Digging for treasure

Daily: remove the clumps from any litter box.

32 XP

Doing the laundry

Daily: either completing a laundry cycle or placing the clothing in its proper place.

32 XP

Feeding the critters

Daily: all tasks involving feeding and watering of all pets.

12 XP

Making dinner

Daily: Preparing a large meal for the rest of the party. (For a smaller meal, claim a half or third XP.)

36 XP

Nailing the workout

Daily: Each person has their own routine. Take half if you gave an effort, take 150% if you did significantly more.

24 XP

Taking out the trash

Daily: empty one household receptacle into the outside collection bin.

8 XP

Tidying the house

Daily: a whole-house check for out-of-place clutter followed by light dusting as needed.

16 XP

Watering plants

Daily: Tending to any plants and herbs required by the party.

8 XP

Wiping the counters

Daily: make sure the kitchen counters are clean and clear.

8 XP

Weekly

Changing the bed

Weekly: strip off the bed linens and replace them with fresh ones.

16 XP

Cleaning the bathroom

Weekly: Cleaning the fittings and surfaces in the party's bathroom, switching out soiled towels for fresh. Mopping does not count for floor points.

36 XP

Going someplace

Weekly: leave the house for reasons other than just getting groceries.

24 XP

Putting the trash out

Weekly: Putting the outside collection bin at the side of the road.

8 XP

End-week bonus round

Checking the bedroom

Make sure that there is nothing extraneous in the bedroom, straighten the blankets.

4 XP

Checking the kitchen

Inspect the refrigerator for spoiled or questionable food. Check that shopping list is current.

4 XP

Checking the living room

Make sure that the living room is tidy for the weekend.

4 XP

Checking the misc

Make sure that hallways and storage areas are up to current standards of cleanliness.

4 XP

Checking the work areas

Make sure that all indoor work spaces have been dusted and vacuumed during the week. Check for inactive projects out-of-place.

4 XP

Clearing the car

Remove the trash and clutter from the car and make sure everything else is in place

8 XP

Clearing the pre-week list

Check the calendar, have important things located, mindless knitting assembled, uniforms ready

8 XP

Preparing weekend meals

Have weekend meals and snacks planned, thawed, chopped, ready to be heated. Load the crock-pot or pre-cook as needed.

36 XP

Sporadic specials

Tasking inside -major

Do a major task that is usually done once a month or less often.

32 XP

Tasking inside -minor

Do a minor task that is usually done only once per month or less.

16 XP

Tasking outside -major

Bush trimming, gardening, leaf raking, lawn mowing

48 XP

Tasking outside -minor

Porch sweeping, light weeding,

24 XP