Doing chores can teach children valuable skills and better prepare them for adult life. Through tidying, cleaning, cooking, gardening, and doing other tasks, children can learn how to care for a home, themselves, and others.
Doing chores will also help in developing children’s other skills, including communication, teamwork, and negotiation skills. Contributing to family life can also provide children with a feeling of satisfaction and responsibility.
Sharing housework with your children can help to develop your relationship with them, reduce stress as you will have less to do, and will help to ensure tasks are done quickly so that you have more free time which you can spend doing fun things together.
However, actually getting children to help with chores can be quite difficult. Here are some tips to encourage your kids to help with housework.
Start early on
Get your children used to chores from an early age by involving them when doing housework. Give them tasks that are suited to their ages and abilities. Tasks that are too easy will likely be tedious for them, but make sure they are not too difficult as this can be frustrating and put them off helping in the future.
Start with simple tasks
A common task to start with is putting away their toys. Children love making a mess but are often not too keen to tidy up after themselves. Many parents tidy up after children who are capable of doing it themselves. This creates more work for you and sends a message to your children that they do not need to clean up after themselves as someone will do it for them.
You could also get them to help with setting or clearing the table, or assisting in baking or cooking for the family. This will help to teach them how to care for themselves and others.
Do chores together
It is a good idea to do chores together, to begin with. Show them how you do something, then get them to repeat what you did while under supervision so that you can ensure they are doing it safely and correctly. Continue to do chores together until you are confident that they are capable of doing tasks on their own.
Be clear
Try to communicate clearly what tasks each person will do and when. You could write them down or even have a chart on display that shows who is going to be responsible for what and when it needs to be done.
Make it fun
Turn chores into games or contests to make it more fun. Have them compete for who can clean their bedroom the quickest, or who can put the most toys away. You could even have an incentive such as picking what to have for dinner or what movie to watch.
You could also make chores more fun by putting on some music, and having a sing-a-long or dance while doing chores.
Praise positive behaviour
Try to praise and reward positive behaviour whenever possible. If your child does a good job, let them know. Tell them they have done well or that you are happy with what they have done.
You could also reward your child such as a tasty snack, sweets, a new toy, going to the cinema or bowling, or pocket money.
Many parents have reward charts for their children, and once they get a certain amount of stickers or marks on the chart then they get a reward. This is an excellent way of motivating your children to get involved and take on more responsibility.
If you are going away or need extra help with the housework, or simply want more time for yourself and to spend with your children, Time For You can help.
Time For You specialises in providing properly screened and vetted domestic cleaners to private households to provide you, our client, with more time for you. Find a cleaner near you by simply entering your postcode, and let us take care of the cleaning, so you don’t have to.
Time For You are the premier international house cleaning service company with hundreds of local business owners across the UK, Australia, and Canada. Time For You are currently cleaning tens of thousands of homes across the world on a weekly basis.
