How to Involve Your Kids in Household Chores

Even after years of gender equality, surveys show that women are still doing the majority of the household chores, even when both partners work full time. In most cases, it seems to be a pattern that couples fall into rather than a deliberate attempt by men to leave all the work to their wives. If you find you are shouldering the burden of domestic chores, then you should feel able to talk to your partner about the imbalance. However, if you have a family, don’t forget that your children should be making a contribution as well.

Why it’s good for children to help with chores

There are several ways in which you and your kids will benefit from them giving you a hand with jobs around the house:

• ·      It gets them used to the idea that they need to take responsibility for looking after themselves, preparing them for life when they leave home.
• ·     It teaches them the practical skills of how to clean effectively and among other things, iron their clothes and load a dishwasher – skills that most kids don’t seem to have been born with!
• ·    It gives them more of an appreciation for how much you do for them, helping to prevent you being taken for granted.
• ·     Once they become proficient in their tasks, they will be able to ease the burden of house care for you.

How to get them engaged with household chores

You probably would have dreaded hearing your mom or dad ask you to give them a hand with the housework when you lived at home, so you shouldn’t be surprised if your own kids are less than enthusiastic at the thought. Rather than using chores as a punishment or giving the kids so much to do they become fed-up and resentful, try using the completion of tasks as a requirement for permission to do the activities they enjoy. For example, if they want to spend an evening playing ball with their friends, say that’s fine, as long as they’ve emptied the dishwasher properly first, or taken the garbage out for instance. Keep the tasks short and sweet, say ten minutes to half an hour each night, or get them to work on a major project with you over half a day at the weekend. When it comes to bigger tasks like carpet cleaning, you’ll find it hard to complete the process efficiently even with the kids helping, so it’s a good idea to use a specialist service like My Technicare to carry out these chores for you.

If you can find some ways to make doing the chores more fun that will also help. You can find tips and tricks for turning boring tasks into entertaining games on most parenting websites, so it’s worth having a browse around for ideas. In the end, you won’t be doing your kids any favors by not expecting them to help. In fact, you’ll be depriving them of some important life lessons, so get them involved in carrying out household chores as soon as you can.