There are lots of ways young children can help around the house; even a two year old can learn to put away their own pajamas. Involving children in family jobs helps develop a sense of cooperation and team work in a family. Children who grow in responsibility also grow in self-esteem (a prerequisite for achievement in the real world). Whenever possible, turn work into fun. Responsible kids feel good about themselves. The best way to keep a household running smoothly is to ensure everyone in the house knows what is expected of them. By including your child in this shared sense of responsibility, you are instilling the values of family unity and teamwork within your child. It is extremely important that the chores you select for your child should be age-appropriate. As a parent, find ways to incorporate responsibility into your child’s life and to teach and encourage them to see tasks through.

First of all

• Assess your child’s skill level, what are they capable of doing?
• Only assign age-appropriate tasks for your child to complete, otherwise you will be automatically setting them up for failure.
• Sit down and make a list of chores that need to be done by everyone. Encourage your child to think of things around the house that they think they can do. This will give your child a sense of control. They are also more likely to stick with a chore that they volunteered for, or particularly enjoy doing.

Getting started

• Do not overwhelm your child with too many chores. This can be very daunting, especially if they are getting this kind of responsibility for the first time.
• Personally demonstrate what you want them to actually do for every new task or chore. Show them exactly what is to be done and how, try and make it fun. Can they do it to music?
• Set a time limit that is age appropriate e.g. sweeping these leaves for 5 minutes and use a timer. Supervise them until they have mastered it.

Ongoing

• If possible, establish a routine for your child to follow for completing their chores. By doing the same chores at the same time everyday, your child will be less likely to forget them.
• Post a list of your child’s chores and responsibilities where they can see it everyday. For younger children draw pictures so they can easily see what they need to do. They may like to check it off each day.
• Reward your child for completing their chores. Hugs, kisses, verbal praise and having a friend over are all great rewards. Children enjoy hearing that they are doing a good job just as much as adults do, so make a point of saying something positive about your child’s progress each day.
• Some families pay their children for completing chores, others feel payment is not necessary as they are contributing to the daily life of a family home.
• Teach children the joy of self-evaluation and a job well done instead of dependence on rewards. Children often love the satisfaction of placing completed stickers on their chore chart.

Chores are a great way for children to learn responsibility, and can commonly be a source of earned pride and self-esteem. The trick is ensuring the chores assigned to your child don't create a sense of tension, arguments, and ultimately frustration. Lets be honest, few kids (or adults!) like to do chores, but teaching children responsibility not only helps you with the task of keeping a house in good shape, but also enhances a child's self-esteem as they begin to view themselves as an essential part of the family and household.

What are some areas of responsibility you could give your child?

• Keeping their room tidy e.g. making their bed, keeping their toys tidy, putting their clothes away.
• Morning organization e.g. getting dressed, getting their bag ready, putting on their shoes.
• Helping with meal times e.g. setting the table, emptying the dishwasher, helping with food preparation.
• Household cleaning e.g. dusting, cleaning windows, sweeping, vacuuming.
• General duties e.g. feeding pets, watering plants, getting the mail.
• Have a family brainstorm of what needs to be done and ask for volunteers

Parent Tips

Bess writes -We tried to get our toddlers doing chores, it was a nightmare, didn’t work at all. The dog starved and short term memory issues meant I spent huge amounts of time re-explaining the chores on a daily basis. We then decided to give them some super simple chores like put your toys away and get a sticker on the reward chart. Real chores sort of started around 5 years of age and have improved each year since. They still have motivation issues, we don’t pay them in money but they do get ‘rewards’ like new books, clothes (truth is I’d still buy them the books and clothes but they don’t know that!!)

Lily writes-We have a white board with all the expectations clearly drawn or written on for our children. Mornings are chaos in our home so they have lists of what to do and they know why they are doing them. We don’t pay our kids for chores; they are part of the family and are responsible for doing small tasks that help our home run smoothly. We do make chores fun, we play a lot of loud music when cleaning. We try and do a big cleaning session on Saturday mornings followed by a big shared lunch. I write the jobs for each family member on toilet tissue and hand out the sections, the kids love it. When their list is complete they flush it down the toilet!!

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