How to teach your child to help out with chores
Sometimes children might look at chores to be tedious and time taking. As parents we need to teach them that these chores are essential to do and they can learn important life skills also.
Learning to do chores will help your child improve their work ethic and become responsible adults as they grow up.
Children might not enjoy completing their tasks and may need a bit of cajoling and reminders from you to do their chores.
With a generation gap, we can teach our kids through different methods to help out with chores around the house:
1- Introduce chores early
You should introduce the idea of chores to your children at a very young age so they get used to the idea of completing their tasks.
You can teach them to put their toys away after they are done playing or arrange their bookshelf the way that they want.
Before asking them to do these tasks, take the time to sit down with them and teaching them how to do so. It might take some times for them to learn. Remember not to use any harsh words as children will slowly get better in performing these chores.
As your child grows up, you can add more chores to their list.
2- Team
One simple way you can teach your kids to do chores is to work with them as a team.
You can complete tasks together and celebrate when you are done.
You can play your favourite music and clean the house together or wash the dishes so that doing these chores seems more fun and not always dull.
3- Family member’s chores
You can create a chore chart for your entire family where you can highlight and write down what chores every family member has to perform throughout the week.
This can be updated every month depending on what everybody is comfortable with. This will help kids not feel stuck doing the same chores everyday.
Watching other family members complete their chores will motivate your kid to complete their tasks as well.
4- Daily routine
One of the best ways for your kid to learn to do chores everyday is to include these tasks in their daily routine so they fall into the pattern of doing it everyday.
You can ask them to clean the dishes before they sit down and watch TV with you or help you peel vegetables when you are preparing dinner.
Before sleeping, they can clean their bedroom everyday.
5- Chores as punishment
Never use chores to punish your children.
A lot of parents ground their child and make them perform more tasks.
By making them do chores as a form of punishment will result in your kid associating chores with negative feelings.
6- Chores can be fun
You can make chores more fun with the help or music and dance. This will help your child to associate chores with something that is enjoyable and not just boring.
You can also keep score among your children and you of who performs more chores and that can help boost them to complete their chores in their list.
7- Autonomy
Allow your kids to have some autonomy on when they want to complete their tasks and how they do it as long as they are completing it.
For example, if your kid wants to buy some books or posters to hang around their room to make it seem more presentable then you can help them out.
This will motivate them to clean their room everyday and keep their space clean.
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By granting them some autonomy and being flexible, kids will find chores more enjoyable.
Conclusion
Please understand that your child might not be able to perform all the tasks you assign them or might not be able to do it exactly the way you want it.
You need to be patient with them and give them room to make such mistakes so they can slowly learn.
Doing chores will prepare them to live alone as they navigate adult life and these chores are just stepping stones for them to learn various life skills.
