Parenting With Love and Logic: Teaching Children Responsibility

problems between them when they’re given some control.
A bigger problem is getting the chores done on your time schedule.
Wise parents establish a time frame with phrases like “By the next time
you eat” or “By the time I take you to your soccer game.” That way the
child always knows the ground rules.
One sort of parent who ends up with resistant kids is the “Oh, by the
way” parent. The simple sight of a child sitting in a chair reading sends
these parents into deep flights of remembering. They remember all the
jobs around the house that haven’t been done — jobs that haven’t even
been assigned.
The “Oh, by the way” parents say things like, “Oh, by the way, can you
pick up the trash in the yard?” or “Oh, by the way, can you polish the
grillwork on the car?” Foster’s mom pulled this on him when he was
young, and he ended up doing his reading in the furnace room!