Pre-Teen Chores

One of our biggest difficulties raising Jelly has definitely been teaching her to take responsibility for her chores, and I wholly blame it on clashing parenting techniques between her two houses. While at her Mum's house Jelly may be asked to do some chores, but her Mum doesn't feel it is fair to put that kind of pressure on a nine-year-old. We whole-heartedly disagree. In this home, we all pitch in to our family home, allowing us to carry on with a good work-ethic and a sense of pride in ones own possessions. 

We attempted to set up matching chores at each house a year or two ago, and it was just a disaster. If she didn't complete jobs at her Mum's house, she was given the money anyway as "its not her fault I didn't remind her", so she became quite happy to skip the money we were offering in order to receive money from her Mum and not lift a finger all week. We tried taking money away completely, we tried taking away her technology, she just didn't seem to care. She's only here half the week, and half a week is easy to wait out if you get to do what you want for the rest of it. It's so hard to instil values which are contradicted completely at the person's other home.

So here we are, in a situation where Jelly has been doing two jobs a week (folding socks every Saturday and making tea/coffee whenever we ask), and has not received any money from us since some time last year. Her birthday and Christmas gave her a bump in cash, so she hasn't felt the sting of going without, and unfortunately the complaints about just how much she is made to do at our house for zero reward are getting more and more frequent. It pains me to say it, but her work ethic sucks right now. But by the end of this summer, it won't.

Yesterday we had a conversation, where she told me she would like to try to earn some money. So we struck up a deal and I explained that it's very similar to what I do as a freelance worker, in the hopes of having her connect it with feeling grown-up and like she has a real sense of the value of her work. Here's the thing: I'm a workaholic, but that doesn't mean I love to work. It means I love to earn. Nothing feels greater. So I have drawn her up a price list. She knows how much each job is worth and the frequency of work is (aside from a few once-a-week jobs) entirely up to her. She is literally choosing how much money she will earn every week. The rules are: we don't remind her to do the jobs, we initial each job to agree it has been done properly, she works out the total and presents it to us (kind of like an invoice) for immediate payment at 6pm every Saturday. Suddenly she is given the chance to take responsibility, basically to own her own finances - I'm really hopeful that she's going to take this opportunity and run with it. Time will tell!

Our suggested chores for a 9 year old: fold socks [once a week], 50p. Tidy bedroom [once a week], £1.00. Tidy craft cupboard [once a week], 70p. Tidy drawer [once a week], 70p. Feed and give cats water, 10p a day. Put own laundry away, 60p. Make bed, 10p a day. Dust shelving, 30p,

Quick School Run Hairstyles

School mornings are the worst, at least in our house: everybody's in a daze, forcing them to move more slowly than humanly possible at the one time you need them to hurry the hell up. I know as a Mum I like my children to look smart and presentable but fancy hairstyles are not always possible when it's five to eight and you're already late and nobody seems to want to get out from under their duvets. 

And so I have shared a few of my "go-to" styles for when Jelly wants to look a bit 'fancy' as she calls it and time is most definitely ticking on. I'm awful at doing hair at the best of times, and Jelly's hair is the exact opposite of mine (much thicker) so everything I thought I knew about hair has had to go out of the window since I started getting her ready for school. But I think these styles are pretty versatile, they'll work medium hair and longer (I have nothing for a pixie cut I'm afraid) and, on this first week back at school for most of the country, they're a bit of inspiration - because lets face it, you're definitely not going to feel inspired this week.

I created this 'school run' collection for children because they're simple, quick styles that don't require heat or hairspray/gel. Feel free to do these on your own hair for the school run too - just try not to match your child. Embarrassing, Mum!

Let's Twist Again...

1. I start this hair by separating off the front sections - I clip the one I'm not working with so that it doesn't get mixed in with the hair. Jelly's hair naturally parts to the side but this will actually probably look better with a central parting so just go with whatever's natural!

2. Twist the hair in towards the head, pulling it back so it isn't too loose. Hopefully your child won't hate having their hair done as much as mine does, hence the face!

3. Clip it down securely and do the same with the other side. Easy! Olaf optional.

4. Your finished product should look like this. It literally takes no more than two minutes, but it shows you made an effort.

Is it a plait or something Elsa?

1. This style requires a side parting. Again, start by separating off that front section - this time, though, just do one side.

2. Start french-braiding backwards. Take extra hair from the other side of the head. This can be a bit fiddly if you're not used to french-braiding. There are some tutorials to get you started here and here, but basically plait like normal - each time a middle piece becomes an outside piece, grab a chunk of loose hair so that it becomes part of that piece. Does that make any sense?

3. Carry on until the hair above and below the plait has ran out. Try and keep it tight as you go along - mine ended up a bit loose and messy. Like I said, rubbish at hair!

4. Once the hair has ran out, finish with a regular plait for the remaining length of hair and secure it with a normal bobble (or whatever you fancy!) I think this is quite a good style because it took less than four minutes and screams 'Elsa'. Every Elsa fan is going to be in love with this quick and easy style.

Twist that pony!

1. Create a ponytail as high as it will go. I find tipping the head upside-down helps if the hair is freshly washed and a bit less co-operative. You want it so high that the top of the pony stands right up.

2. And now on to the weirdest and worst quality photo I have ever taken. Twist that pony!

3. Start to wrap your twisted pony around the hair band - this is why it's important that it's high, as there's more structure for you to work with.

4. Once it's all wrapped around nicely, fluff it out a bit to fill any gaps and cover the hair bobble, then use another bobble to secure the whole thing. We often use a hair doughnut for this style but we couldn't find it today!

Schooltime Sassy

1. We use the ponytail from the ballerina bun to begin this style. Make your pony nice and high.

2. Choose a chunk of hair from anywhere in the ponytail. 

3. Wrap it evenly around the hair bobble, covering all of it.

4. When you reach the end of the chunk, simply use a kirby grip to pin it in place. This is Jelly's favourite style because it's the most 'fancy' apparently. And probably one of the easiest, so win-win!

I hope that helped you, Mum in a School Morning Crisis. Do you have any go-to hairstyles for fancy kiddies on school mornings? Let me know!