Co-operation- How can I inspire kids to help around the house?

Take away their electronics. As a reward for helping----they get them back

Tell them straight out you need help and although you appreciate their effort you need them to do: X,Y,Z also. Stress you are a team and their help is not only wanted but needed to give everyone some free time. Then if they do try harder don't get too picky about how they do it to. Life is short so don't sweat the small stuff. :-)

We give our kids an allowance and my husband bases it on the difficulty of work done and how well it was done. That being said, we don't buy our kids whatever they want, so the allowance is for them to buy things they want (and even sometimes need, like a new pair of sneakers), that way they are learning how to work to earn money, budget it and that sometimes money has to go to things we need and not just fun things we want. Because they know they must earn money to get things they want/need, they tend to volunteer more and do a better job to make better money.

14 - 19 is an independent age. If you can't talk to them into helping more, I bet telling them you will cut back 10% on what you do may be an eye opener.

As an example, if they leave their clothes on the floor when you want them to put dirty clothes in the hamper, stop picking them up off the floor- when they have no clean clothes, they'll learn quickly.

I believe you MUST be very specific in what you want them to do. If you are too general in your expectations, it won't get done.

That is part of the parenting exercise, to teach them that they need to do things on their own. I find small rewards to help best when my grandkids do something that I did not ask them to do (works best on the younger ones, just a hug and kind words letting them know how much they helped).

I have found that teaching anyone to be a "self starter" is hard work.

If any of the kids drive, make it contingent upon completing their chores completely. Try to instill in them that they to know how to properly clean and do chores as they need to learn these skills for college and when they are on their own. If they have allowances, no $$ if chores not done.

If the things needed done are extra instead of normal routine chores, you could use a reward system of some type. Make it a contest with a reward.