Having Kids Pitch In With Housekeeping Chores Teaches Responsibility and Valuable Life
Lessons
An amazing thing happened one weekend. Everyone was out of the house and I was left to clean and do laundry by myself. However, instead of resenting that I had all the work to do while everyone else was out having fun, I found that I managed to get my work
done in record time and enjoyed it to boot.
And, even though I was actually enjoying myself, if everything in the house always fell on my shoulders, I might get fed up pretty fast. That happens in a lot of families where the household duties all belong to one person and where kids are rarely included in regular housekeeping chores.
Too many moms see housekeeping as being outside the realm of their child’s duties – and their ability. It’s not only sad, it’s also untrue. If kids are fully capable of contributing to the mess of a house, why can’t they be expected to contribute to its cleaning? The problem usually rests with moms.
As mothers we often look at housework as the old saw “if you want it done right, you’ll have to do it yourself.” But, that’s bad for everybody – and tiring for Mom.
Kids quickly learn that the “auto-mom” will handle all the messes, laundry, cooking, cleaning, and other household jobs if the kids can prove their incompetence. Moms also get something out of “being the only one” who cleans the toilet right, or folds the towels like they do in department stores.
But that’s self-defeating. Otherwise, trying to keep home and hearth together will be a 24-hour-a-day job and you’ll end up with children who’ll leave the home one day without the vaguest clue about how to handle normal household duties.
Have expectations of kids
One of the things that can undermine the process of kids helping out around the house is a parent’s expectation that they won’t do it. Expect that they will do their jobs, check on their progress, and assign appropriate rewards and consequences to the job, and it’s amazing how well kids will perform. It’s especially true if fun activities have to wait until the bathroom’s cleaned.
Parents have to realign their minds that kids are fully capable — and often willing — to participate in the running of the household and the housekeeping that goes with it. As an example, if you asked your son to take out the trash before dinner, remove the videogame privilege until it’s done.
Yes, it is easier to just do it ourselves, but that’s not practical and it sets a bad example, showing kids that in the real world, there’s someone there to clean up after you. As anyone will tell you, the real world demands that you pick up after yourself. However, not all kids are ready for every household task.
Give age appropriate jobs
Training kids to clean properly also relies on giving them age-appropriate jobs around the house and not expecting perfection. That doesn’t mean they should be allowed to do a sloppy job, either. As the editor of a cleaning website, I dig cleaning.
But, I don’t expect my kids to have the same standards that I do. I do expect them to be able to do an acceptable job appropriate to their age and abilities. When my kids do a poor job, I simply tell them the shirt needs to be refolded, for example, and have them make corrections.
Having kids clean the house teaches them responsibility, appreciation and care for their surroundings, and self-pride in a job well done. It’s something every child should experience for themselves. Yes, every child should know the bliss of a snowy white toilet bowl or a beautifully folded stack of towels.
It will help build a life-long appreciation of a tidy home and develop good homemaking skills. Next, work on teaching them dinner preparation so when you’re running late, you can still get dinner on the table. But that’s another article….
Age Appropriate Housekeeping Chores for Children
Ages 3 to 5
•Help straighten a room
•Help make their bed
•Bring items from one room to another
•Help set or set the table
•Help clear or clear the table
•Bring towels to the laundry, hang up towel
•Run a Swiffer or electrostatic mop
•Gather trash
Ages 6 to 10
•Set and clear table
•Sweep
•Make their bed every day
•Do dishes
•Straighten and pick up
•Load/unload dishwasher
•Vacuum
•Fold & put away laundry
•Dust
•Mop
•Clean baseboards window sills
•Take out trash
Ages 11 to until they’re out of the house
•Set and clear table
•Mop
•Sweep, Vacuum
•Make their bed every day
•Straighten and pick up
•Operate Washer/Dryer; do laundry
•Clean bathrooms
•Dust
•Clean windows
•Do dishes/load and unload dishwasher
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