Experiment No. 16: Rise and Shine

The Basics

We’re Trying to Solve: The unequal work of navigating morning chaos
Target Audience: The whole household
Ages: 4 and up
Category: Household chores
Estimated Time: 20-30 minutes upfront, 5 minutes a day for a week
Difficulty Level: Easy

Sometimes fixing a small imbalance in sharing the load can have outsized effects, especially for the little ones who are soaking up knowledge and building new habits every day. Teaching kids to start the day by making their bed is what Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit, calls a “keystone habit.” It creates a sense of accomplishment that can lead to better decisions and habits throughout the day, and greater happiness and wellbeing as a result. How can you get the whole family to develop this habit?

Directions

1. Gather as a family and explain that for the next week, you’ll be running an experiment in daily bed making. Prepare for push back, especially from kids age 8 and older. Validate their feelings that this is a change and that they may not understand why making their beds is important. But ask for everyone to be flexible to try the experience for one week and see how it makes them feel to start the day by successfully completing a task. And remind them, you and other adults in the house will be doing it too!
2. Set reasonable and clear standards. What does a made bed look like? For 4 to 6-year-olds, take a moment to teach them and help them practice. Making the bed for them is likely to be bumpy and imperfect. That’s okay as long as you feel they’re giving it their best shot. No one should “redo” their work--which defeats the purpose of teaching them responsibility and building self-efficacy.
3. For the next week, everyone makes their beds within 5 minutes of getting up. Set a timer if you like. Use a cowbell or funny noise to call time. Or put on 5 minutes of a favorite playlist. Shout “Done!” And high five other family members if you like when you’ve finished!
4. For couples and those who share the same bed, the last one out of bed, makes the bed. If both get up at the same time, make the bed together. If your partner consistently gets up earlier than you do, think about how they could trade another task to you in exchange for their bed-making.
5. Chart and check. Set up a chart with an I did/I did not check for each family member, which they are in charge of updating. This avoids a situation in which one family member has to nag the others about whether they've met their challenges.
6. At the end of the week, get together and look at how you did. Take a moment to review how the experiment felt. Could you make changes for another week to make it work better or get more buy-in? Do you all deserve some sort of treat or fun activity for your hard work?

Connect With the Better Life Lab

Are you going to try this week’s experiment? Do you have a story about how you and your own family solved a problem with the work at home? Is there a specific challenge you’ve been trying to tackle? Can this experiment be improved? Please let us know via this form, at bllx@newamerica.org, or in our Facebook group for BLLx Beta Testers.

Be sure to also sign up for our biweekly newsletter!