

Ask HN: Incentive-based task manager for parents & children - bartolo

What about a mobile app that facilitates incentive-based task completion between parents and children? A parent creates a "prize" that has a cost of X "points".The parent then creates multiple tasks (e.g. household chores) that award points upon completion. In order to complete a task the children must submit evidence of completion (e.g. pictures/videos of them washing the car, doing their homework, taking out the trash). Once the parent has approved the task, points are awarded to the children. The child can then use these points to redeem for a "prize" (e.g. spankin' new Xbox 720).
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callmeed
Father of 4 here (1 is grown, the 3 small ones are age 4, 6, & 8). I like the
idea and it has crossed my mind before. A few thoughts:

\- My 8 y/o just got an iPod touch. The other just play on the family iPad. I
would definitely want an app that had some sort of shared/multi-user account
system.

\- For smaller kids, you need an easy UI. A lot of kid games get this horribly
wrong. Make sure to test it with your age group.

\- It sounds old school, but adding some printing capabilities is not a bad
idea IMO. Printing a chart for the fridge is still popular.

\- without delving into a debate on parenting philosophies, there are chores
my kids do—not for points—because _they are required_. They have to empty the
dishwasher and keep their room somewhat clean. They don't get a gold star for
doing it—rather, they lose privileges if they don't do it(or complain longer
than the chore would've taken). All that to say, I'd like to be able to
assign/track weekly chores for each kid without having to assign a prize per
say.

\- We also keep a keen eye out for random acts by the kids. We call them
"servant points" or "polite points" and they are very ad-hoc. It's usually
things like being very nice/polite to a stranger or clerk, being exceptionally
caring to a sibling, or making a gift or piece of art for a friend or
grandparent. It would be cool to keep track of these without the kids thinking
there is a reward at "X points"

Hope that helps

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caw
I'm in my early 20's, so my perception of my childhood chores:

* We had a paper & pencil chart with the shared chores. The chart was because my sister and I alternated dishwasher unloads, and that didn't happen every day. At some point we switched to the calendar already on the fridge, you just write your name down (different colored pens)

* Generally accepted chores (room clean, bed made, vacuum or dust on the weekends) that didn't alternate weren't written down.

I agree that chores are required. In some sense, you could create a point
system if the kids were saving up or working towards something, in the sense
that your parents might "pay you" for extra stuff (washing the car, mowing the
lawn, painting the spare room). At the end of that there might be a reward as
a sort of appreciation, but for me it wasn't expected.

For your app, something like this last piece might be a bit more dynamic.
Parents can load up tasks that need to be done and the kids could work towards
them at their own pace. If they run out of tasks they run out of them for the
time being.

Another thing parents might really like - a quality indicator (5 stars?) or
accept/reject. If you do a crappy job you've got to redo it, and any sort of
goodwill you might have just accumulated is null and void.

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mdoyle
Have you seen Choremonster? <https://www.choremonster.com/>.

We've used Choremonster and it seems like one of the most engaging.

Your suggestion of taking photos sounds innovative, but in most cases you'll
be there to witness the chores happening so the photos wont be adding anything
other than maybe a bit of fun for the children. And the photos themselves may
become repetitive, as the chores generally are. Perhaps there's another app
idea where photos are used to communicate/manage something between parent and
children.

We've used choremonster and its not bad at all. It's quite a challenge to get
the balance right in terms of volume of tasks and granularity, so there's some
upfront investment - and patience - to get things right. The children do get
incentive from it though, but their interest quickly wanes, particularly when
you've had a busy couple of days and haven't reviewed their completed tasks )

~~~
bartolo
Thanks for your feedback! About "get the balance right in terms of volume of
tasks and granularity" I think that our approach should be to suggest that
points are equivalent to money.

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glimcat
I know a guy who's working on this. In addition to the chores, they're working
on some stuff for motivating kids to study.

Allowance as a service + motivational gamification.

<http://empower.me/how-it-works/>

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mcartyem
Does the end goal extend beyond getting household chores done and into
educating children to intrinsically want to do chores?

You improve what you measure. Is points what you want to measure?

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bartolo
I don’t understand your question clearly, but the idea is to incentivize
children to “earn” points after completing tasks, so you are giving value to
their “work” with points that they can exchange for rewards. If I would give a
“learning objective” could be to teach children to “work” for the things that
they want and don’t take everything for granted.

~~~
jvvlimme
I think what is meant if there will be something to reward the kids when they
do something by themselves and not only by doing the requested chores.

Example: Kid cleans up his room without it being asked. Will there be an
ability to award points even without a task being created.

~~~
bartolo
Yes. They can proposed new tasks even if it is already done and the parents
sould accepted it and set the amount of points.

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tamersalama
Why wouldn't the child talk to their parents instead of taking photos/videos.
What's wrong with "Dad, I finished my homework", "Mom, I took out the trash".

~~~
bartolo
The problem by keeping it verbal is tracking what has already been done for an
specific goal. Many parents may forget any “verbal agreement” with their kids.

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crazirican
Do you want to limit yourself to just a family environment?

~~~
bartolo
Right now, yes.

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elbuo8
I could see myself using this.

