Clean Your Room!
Dallas children are among the best at getting chores done, avoiding coal
If Saint Nick’s list of who’s been naughty and nice has a chores section, then kids in Dallas-Fort Worth are likely to find more presents than coal in their stockings this year compared to their counterparts around the country, in particular the South.
According to a recent report, “The How, Why and When of Kids’ Chores in America” from chore-centric app and website ChoreMonster, DFW children complete the seventh-highest amount of chores in the country. No other Texas cities cracked the top 10, which was heavy with West Coast spots like Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.
The South is filled with child slackers, apparently, because cities such as Mobile, Alabama/Pensacola, Florida; Hattiesburg, Mississippi; and Knoxville and Memphis in Tennessee fell in the bottom 10. There will be lots of coal there this Christmas.
The website gathered information on more than 7 million completed chores in its app to find out what sort of tasks kids are doing and how often.
It found that 77 percent of kids are completing at least one chore a day, but a paltry 2.5 percent are pulling their weight every single day of the week. That’s especially troubling when you look at the 10 most assigned chores and see that “brush your teeth” is No. 1. Dentists everywhere just winced.
Other “favorite” chores include making the bed, feeding pets, cleaning your room and about five dirty clothes-related tasks. It’s essentially a list asking children to not be covered in dirt, and only 2.5 percent of them are signing the contract every day of the week.
Of course, even kids know that only fools do things for free. Screen time accounts for half of all chore-related rewards; 14 percent are for allowance. After that, 11 percent go to “snacks,” which tend to be extra dessert or ice cream. Six percent of kids get rewarded with toys, and 3 percent are treated to family outings.
Basically, it’s iPad or GTFO for tykes these days.