Drawing for Chores

One of the unique things that we do at our Thanksgiving celebration is to draw for chores. Mom and Grandma spend all day cooking so it's only appropriate that others help with setting the table, clearing the table, doing dishes, etc. Because it always seemed that the women ended up in the kitchen cleaning and the guys on the couch snoring or watching television, we decided to spread the chores around. I came up with the idea to draw for chores, so everyone puts their name in a hat and we randomly draw names for each assigned task. We have two people to set the tables, two to clear, one to load the dishwasher, one to wash dishes, two to dry dishes, one to wipe up the cupboards and one to sweep. With over 40 people at our Thanksgiving Day celebration, our new system has made it a more equitable way to divide the chores. It's often kind of fun to see a mixed group in the kitchen for chore time.

~Anne P., Woodbury, MN