Dad leaves genius note to ensure kids do chores when he's not at home

A dad asked his children to sort the dishwasher and take the dog for a walk before sending him photos as proof – and found a brilliant way to motivate them

Encouraging your children to clean up after themselves and help out around the house is a battle many parents will be all too familiar with.

It’s difficult enough when you’re at home to supervise the situation but if you leave them to their own devices, it’s likely you’ll come back to find them in front of the same screen where you left them hours before.

But one dad has found a genius way to ensure his children still do their jobs when he’s not around by simply leaving behind a note that he knows won’t go ignored.

He shared the brilliant idea with the 1.1 million members of the Family Lowdown Tips & Ideas Facebook group, and now plenty of other parents have vowed to use the same trick themselves.

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The note the dad had taped up reads: “Unload + reload the dishwasher. Then take a pic of it. Then walk the dog and take a pic of it.

“Then send me both pictures and I’ll tell you where the power cord for your Xbox is.

“Thanks! Love you, dad.”

The post was captioned: “I suppose this is one way of making your kids work for their time spent on gaming”, and it racked up more than 600 comments as parents praised the idea and shared a few of their own.

One person replied to say: “I LOVE THIS !!! Keep on doing it,” and a second joked: “Going to try this with my husband.”

A third wrote: “I turned off WiFi for an hour until chores were done last weekend. Worked a treat to get people moving.”

And another added: “I did this with my son once. Told him I wanted a pic of the bed made and clean room. He screenshot a picture off the internet. He definitely won that day.”