“Children won’t become responsible unless they have responsibility.”

Household chores are tasks done at home. Unlike daily routine, it can be done either daily, weekly, or monthly. Here are some examples of household chores you might have already done: Sweeping the floor, watering plants, dusting, cleaning the dishes, making the bed, etc.  

Every house has a lot of chores to keep things in order. If everyone pitches in, then the chores get done quickly! When children enter the real world, no one is going to pick up after them. Why should children learn household chores? 

If you teach your child while they’re young that there are more important things in life than playing video games and screwing up on gadgets and games the first thing, they wake up to and teach them to do household chores like cleaning, putting away their toys, organising their stuff, and how to run a load of laundry and doing dishes, you’re preparing your kids for adulthood.  

If they grasp these life skills, they would be able to turn around and teach their children. This will help develop a good society with good values. Chores also help children in learning essential life skills.  

 

Did you know? 

According to a well-known 75-year-old Harvard study that examines the childhood psychosocial variables and biological processes for health and well-being, researchers have concluded that kids who were assigned household chores in their childhood are more likely to have better adulthood. 

 

So, let’s dive deeper into the eye-opening benefits of including your young ones in daily mundane activities and household chores: 

 

Build Confidence: Doing household chores daily boosts confidence in children, improves their managerial skills and can also infuse creativity in doing things differently and smartly. 

Empathy: Children who are assigned household chores develop a sense of compassion and empathy as they come to know the value of hard work and contribution done by other family members. 

Keeps Them Busy: Household chores keeps them from wasting their time on unnecessary gadgets and games and doing something productive and helpful. 

Gives Them A Sense Of Pride: Doing daily household chores builds a sense of accomplishment among children and they understand how good it feels to receive recognition and praise for every successful task done. 

Building Bonds With Parents: It is noted that children who are given household chores create a deeper bond with their families. When the children do something greater good within their family, they realise the importance of family connection.  

Developing A Sense Of Responsibility: By doing chores, they learn to take responsibility for their daily affairs. It also helps them understand what needs to be done to keep the house organised.  

Learning Teamwork: When you assign your younger one some tasks, they must hold themselves accountable and for those who couldn’t get their job done, they ask or reach out to their siblings for help. This act strengthens their bond and teamwork which is also crucial for their adulthood. 

Reinforcing Respect: Assigning daily chores reinforces mutual respect and understanding. Children understand the value of smaller tasks. 

Making them Self-reliant: Nobody takes care of your tasks that you can easily do on your own. So, assigning household chores to children helps them become independent and self-reliant which will further groom them to better responsible adults. 

Helps Improve Their Planning And Organisational Skills: Organising their stuff, putting away their toys, and making the bed daily helps refine their organisational and planning skills.  

Sense Of Equality: Some parts of India still hold the idea that household chores are meant only for women. So, introducing daily household tasks at a young age helps understand gender equality as well. 

 

Type of household chores to assign to your little-ones

Household chores must be age-appropriate. Small children, small chores; bigger children, bigger chores. Now, you might be thinking about what kind of household chores you can assign to your children. Well, here is a list: 

 

For 2–4-year-olds: 

• Putting away their toys 
• Keeping dirty clothes in the laundry basket 
• Placing the books on shelves 
• Picking up plates after having a meal 
• Wiping up the spills 
• Help in dusting 

 

For 4–6-year-olds: 

• Fireless cooking like sandwiches 
• Feeding pets 
• Helping in rinsing dishes 
• Cleaning the room 
• Making the bed 
• Matching socks and folding 
• Watering plants 

 

For 6–9-year-olds: 

• Folding clothes 
• Making easy snacks 
• Dressing up for school 
• Stacking utensils in the dishwasher 
• Putting trash in the bin 
• Setting up and cleaning dinner table 
• Sorting clothes for laundry 

 

For 9–12-year-olds: 

• Gardening 
• Vacuum cleaning 
• watching the car 
• Making small meals 
• doing laundry 
• Babysitting younger siblings 
• taking pets for a walk 

 

Key Takeaways

One of the most frightening things that are seen by ignoring the assignment of household chores to children is the sense of entitlement that comes along in young children as they peep into adulthood. Lack of responsibility triggers the feeling of entitlement in children and they expect that the world is going to take care of their small chores.  

So, now you know what needs to be done to groom your children to be responsible adults so that they can contribute to society positively. 

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Also published on Medium.