Weekly Pet Chore List

Having a household pet is a rewarding experience, but it can also be a substantial amount of work. If you have a family pet, it's beneficial for all the family members to share the responsibilities of pet ownership. By making a weekly pet chore list, you'll ensure that the pet is looked after and everyone shares in the responsibilities.

  1. Equality

    • Don't make the mistake of assuming every family member should have perfectly equal duties. If you, as a parent, spend the majority of your waking hours at work, you shouldn't necessarily have to come home and walk the dog daily when your kids are home after school. Likewise, the age of the family members should play a role in the breakdown of the tasks. A young child, for example, might not be able to safely walk a large dog, but she could ensure it has water and food daily.

    Tasks

    • Ensure that your chore list encompasses every type of task that is necessary during any given week. These tasks vary greatly depending on your household pet. If you have a dog, for example, it may need to be walked daily but washed only weekly. If you have a cat, it may not need to be bathed but its litter box should be cleaned up on a regular basis. Fish, for example, require daily feeding but a tank cleaning only once every couple weeks.

    Discussion

    • To keep things running smoothly in your family, involve all the members with developing the chore list together. That way, one member won't feel as though he's being tasked with doing more than his siblings. Consider rotating the chores every week so that one member doesn't get fed up with the monotony of a job. For example, your eldest son could walk the dog daily in the first week of the month, but this duty could be switched to your other child for the following week. Ask your children which tasks they most enjoy doing, but remember that even the most mundane chores need to be completed.