Choremonster is a new app that claims it'll make your kids "beg" you do to chores. Here's how it works: Parents create scheduled chores with point values, and then when their kids are done, they can approve and administer points, which lead to rewards.
Choremonster says rewards can be anything from "hugs to money to a camping trip," which makes me so sad I can't help but type a few emoticon sad faces :( :( :(. I thought we were talking about a fun iPad game geared towards techie parents, not Stalin's Russia! No one should have to take out the trash to get a hug.
Anyway, Choremonster promises that kids will "suddenly find themselves wanting to do chores" thanks to the promise of material goods (or, apparently, love) and the app's fun extras. (There are "educational monsters" involved.) Parents around the web have reviewed the app, and most say it's a fun way to force kids to help out around the house. But I'm not so sure about the premise: what happens when you're away from your iPad and you need your kid to help out with something and they throw a temper tantrum because they won't get any special rewards or "monsters" if they comply?
I'm skeptical because, when I was younger, I really wanted one of those gold star charts that most of my classmates had tacked up onto their kitchen bulletin boards. My parents refused to make one, explaining that they felt weird rewarding my brother and I for accomplishing tasks we should just do, like math homework and the dishes. With that said, they were not very good at enforcing chore duties and I grew up to be pretty inept at housework. (After seeing my attempts to mop, the manager at my first and only retail job said: "Katie? Just don't mop anymore. Just stop mopping.")
Maybe I would've ended up a more organized person if my parents had made chore time into an interactive game. But I still think it's fucked up to offer hugs in exchange for cleaning. What do you guys think?
Image via Anatoliy SamaraShutterstock.