How to Get Kids Involved with Household Chores the Right Way

Jan 3

Household chores are time-consuming and monotonous tasks that most of us don’t enjoy doing. So, many parents want to let their kids”be kids” for as long as possible, preserving them from doing weekly chores, and allowing plenty of playtime or (or screen time) instead.

The unstructured play has nearly endless benefits for a child’s development and young kids should be allowed to spend most of their time playing. However, giving your children chores has its advantages too.

How Introducing Weekly Chores Can Benefit Your Children?

Household chores boost independence, help children learn new skills, and increase confidence. Sharing work around the house helps reduce family stress and strengthens bonds between family members. Here are the seven reasons why kids need to do chores in the household.

Chores Help Children Learn Important Life Skills

Chores teach kids skills they will be using throughout their adult lives. Duties like taking care of pets, preparing meals, shopping, budgeting, cleaning, laundry, etc., will teach children to take care of themselves and others, organize their time and money, and keep their home safe and clean.

Household Chores Boost Self-Esteem and Confidence

Healthy confidence means feeling good about yourself and your ability to succeed. If your child struggles with low confidence, they may have negative self-thoughts about their worth, competence, and skills.

Having healthy, balanced confidence can boost your child’s resilience, help them perform at their best, and achieve their goals.

Being involved in weekly chores helps children and teens feel responsible, competent, and confident. Assigning kids weekly duties boosts self-pride as they are considered mature enough to do the tasks. Holding your child accountable for their assignments can increase their self-esteem and make them more responsible.

Chores Boost Social and Emotional Skills

Introducing daily and weekly chores to your children teach them responsibility and independence. For example, taking care of pets boosts social and emotional skills such as self-control and reliability. They also help kids develop a stronger sense of commitment to their families. Working together as a team translates into skills such as empathy, cooperation, and reliance.

Weekly Chores Improve Communication Skills

Sharing and coordinating chores with other family members can boost a child’s communication skills. It can help them learn skills such as negotiating, collaboration, turn-taking, and working as a team that will benefit them at school and in life.

Chores Strengthen the Family Bonds

Kids who help around the house are more likely to develop good relationships with family members, friends, and other people. Preparing a meal or shopping for groceries together can be fun activities that create opportunities for you and your child to connect. Besides, when kids help out with weekly chores, household tasks get done sooner, which eases stress in the family and leaves more space to enjoy family time and do things together.

Regular Chores Teach Kids Time Management

Chores teach kids to manage their time, improve their planning skills, build good habits, and learn to set priorities. Regular tasks also help children build strong work ethics, which is highly valued in our society.

Time management skills will help your children grow into productive and satisfied adults. Being organized will decrease your kids’ stress levels because time management will allow your children to manage their deadlines, make fewer mistakes, and increase school and work effectiveness.

Also, keeping organized and efficient will leave your kids with more free time, allowing them to relax and engage in activities they enjoy doing.

Household Tasks Encourage Hands-On Experiences

Young children learn about the world around them through hands-on experiences. These experiences encourage multisensory learning that relies on a child’s natural learning styles and promote brain development. The brain functions are entwined because the brain develops in a multisensory environment. Kids learn and remember the best when using multiple senses, which chores provide many opportunities for.

The best way to teach your children about everyday objects is to allow them to manipulate these objects. Daily tasks will help your children learn how to use everyday objects such as clothes, dishes, food, and other household pieces and bits.

Household chores require kids to use their hands or feet to manipulate objects, which fosters their motor and cognitive skills and helps them gain independence.

Introducing chores such as measuring and pouring ingredients while making a cake, picking veggies in the supermarket (or your garden!), taking care of plants, etc., provide countless opportunities for your kids to practice problem-solving skills, hand-eye coordination, and creativity. It improves attention and nurtures the child’s ability to follow directions, encourages recognition and discrimination of colors, shapes, and textures, and enables a better understanding of abstract math concepts.

How to Get Your Kids Involved in Weekly Chores

Assign Age-Appropriate Tasks

Involve your child in chores that suit their age and abilities. A task that is too hard for a child can not only frustrate them but also be dangerous. On the other hand, if chores are too easy, kids might find them tedious.

Three-year-olds can start helping around the house doing less demanding tasks such as picking up after themselves, while older children can help their parents in many ways.

Have your preschooler (three plus) pick up their toys and put their dishes away every day. Start teaching your children how to tidy up their room.

Use Different Strategies to Motivate Your Kids

To motivate your preschooler to do chores, introduce sticker charts, and use other rewards (buy small gifts, let them choose a family movie, praise your child, give them a hug, etc.).

You can also motivate your children to do daily or weekly chores by setting clear rules about what each person’s daily or weekly assignments are or doing a task together until they are ready to do them alone. Discuss with your children why doing chores is essential and how they feel after doing a particular job.

Don’t Shy Away from Praising Their Efforts

Always praise your kids’ positive behaviors and show interest in how they have done their chores. Ask them what was the hardest about a specific chore and allow them to switch duties with siblings or other family members from time to time to keep them motivated.

Make sure to explain the job you expect them to do not expect perfection. That being said, try not to show disappointment if your child’s efforts aren’t that great in the beginning. If you keep telling your kids they are doing a great job, they will feel rewarded and encouraged to keep helping around the house.

Keep It Organized

Create a list of chores and have your kids pick out the chores they would like to do. You can then create a four-column chart with one column for the list of chores and names of family members doing them, another column for deadlines, the third one for a checkmark when the work is done, and the last one for a sticker for a job well done.

Chores for Toddlers and Preschoolers (3 to 5 years)

Involving your youngest ones in household chores teaches them that their contribution is essential and gives them a sense of responsibility and independence.

Toddlers and preschoolers can get involved in the next weekly chores:

· Pick up their toys and books

· Help set up the dining table

· Water the plants

· Help sort laundry

· Help with grocery shopping

· Help put away groceries

· Make the bed

· Fold towels

· Sort their books

· Help with preparing meals

Chores for School-Age Children (6 to 10 years)

Your child’s responsibilities with chores should increase once they start attending school. Here are some of the tasks school-age kids can do with ease.

· Make their beds

· Water plants

· Tidy up their room

· Help pack lunch

· Empty trash cans

· Empty the dishwasher

· Sort laundry

· Dust shelves

· Take care of pets

· Set up the dining table

· Help with grocery shopping and putting groceries away

· Water the plants

· Mop floors

Chores for Older Kids and Teenagers

Doing chores helps teenagers learn skills they will use in their adult lives and teaches them teamwork, cooperation, and negotiating. As your children grow, gradually add more complex chores. Here are some of the chores you can add to your teen’s chore list.

· Doing the laundry

· Dusting, vacuuming, sweeping

· Washing the dishes

· Feeding and walking of pets, cleaning after them

· Getting the mail

· Organizing their closet

· Babysitting younger siblings

· Making lunch for themselves and their siblings

Engaging your children in household tasks will promote their development on many levels. From teaching them responsibility, teamwork, and constructive communication to boosting independence, self-assurance, and motor skills, chores are an excellent way to help your kids grow into self-reliant and confident adults.

Thank you for Reading! Get your Free Weekly Chore Chart when you subscribe to our Weekly Newsletter and be the first to know when we have new contents and freebies!