My friend Sandy wrote an amazing musical called “Rated P for Parenthood,” which debuted at the South Orange, New Jersey Performing Arts Center and then ran off-Broadway. It was a hilarious and touching look at raising kids from birth to college, starring talented actors who made me laugh and cry all four times I saw it. It may be touring sometime soon so if you get a chance, do yourself a favor and check it out!
While Sandy was working on and promoting the show she started a blog on the “Rated P” website which she is still writing. I was a guest blogger this week and wrote about how I went on strike to get my kids to do their house chores. Please have a look here.
And let me know in the comments if you’ve had any success with getting your kids to help out around the house. It’s an ongoing issue so I can use all the advice I can get!
carpool candy 
Wow! Don’t see my boys ever enjoying cleaning anything, ESP the bathroom!
I had a similar week with my girls not too long ago. I try not to burden them with too much around the house, but they are still expected to help out. When that “helping out” stopped happening, we had a serious talk. My biggest beef? What is it about toothpaste today that makes kids think it’s OK to spread it all over the bathroom counter? I swear, the girls’ bathroom looks like a blue, sparkley, bubble-gum flavored war zone most days. It’s disgusting. I told them it was their mess and it was too gross for me to clean up any more. I bought them Clorox wipes, taught them how to clean the mirrors with Windex and the toilet. They now love cleaning the bathroom. Who knew? Avery is especially fond of cleaning the toilets and often asks if she can do it for fun. Kind of weird? I started up a chore list for them and they earn extra allowance for doing extra jobs beyond the typical “make your bed, clean your room” stuff. Each of the girls now sort their laundry, bring the dirty laundry downstairs for me, and put their clean laundry away. They also take turns on dog duty, take turns with the bathroom and bringing down dirty towels. So far, it’s working quite well. If they don’t do their jobs each day (they have a checklist), they don’t earn the money. Each job earns an extra 25 cents. So far, so good. We’ll see… Oh and I hope I run across your friend’s show! How fun!!!