Chorechart du Jour

Were any of you ever one of those people that thought "I would never let my kid do that! or When I have MY kids..." I admit fully that I was one of those people. I know how they think, how they are able to look at struggling parents with a little disdain because they know with certainty that they will do a better job. Let me emphasize WAS one.
I am proud to say that I have left those thoughts behind me as I have come to realize why things are so. Now it all makes sense, the looks the moms have on their faces while their child says something inappropriate in front of others or as their child sinks their teeth into the brown sugar bag from the shopping trolley while you are figuring out if it cheaper to buy two packs of 20 nappies or the bulk pack of 42.
From a very young age they know how to figure out your weak spots and how to exploit your vulnerability. Which brings me to another parent moment. The thing you are not prepared for is that you don't give birth to a five year old and instantly you are able to do all those things that you thought, "when I have mine..." to. No no no, you get to start out with a little baby. Precious as they are, they grow up gradually and yet quickly at the same time. By the time they are able to do things for themselves you have been on robot mode for years.
You are used to making their bed, helping them get dressed, tying their shoes. It is always a real "ah ha" moment to me when I really can't stop what I am doing to respond to their cries of distress (usually pinky pie pony REALLY needs a change of tutu), only to find that in their desperation, they have tried and successfully completed the task themselves. "Why in the world have I been doing that for them when they can do it themselves?" It is a moment that always causes me to pause and reflect upon what else I could possibly be doing for them that they can do themselves and what could they be doing FOR ME? That's right ladies and gentleman this is all leading to the chore chart.
Okay, so maybe I could set the table faster and skip the moaning, and groaning but that is not the point. The point is that they are learning to contribute to the day to day runnings of the household and to have a little responsibility. The real bonus is that when they are working on a chore, there are no new messes occurring. Things go double time. When I tidy myself, they can make new messes at twice the speed while I am trying to clean one up.
I have finally finished my latest additon to my chore chart collection. Throughout the past couple of years I have tried out a variety of chore charts. They have had to adapt through their ages and abilities. Some of them have worked better than others but all in all I think it is always a little more motivating to have a change every now and then. The old paper and pen worked well for awhile, but then I was always too lazy to make a new one or print a new one out each week, even lazier than me was my children not wanting to find a pen to cross things off. So now I have turned back to magnets in hopes that we will be able to use our little finger muscles and move from one category to the next. I put in some work with it today, so we will see if it works. I may have overdone it with writing down extra chores that didn't need to be added to the chart but I didn't' want to waste magnet room. I could not find full magnet sheets in my area and had to use the business card magnets so...um...yah. Anyway, we will see how it all goes down. What are your chore experiences?