When you allow your children to participate in age-appropriate household responsibilities, such as helping to prepare dinner or put away groceries, you are helping your children understand their importance in the family. By allowing your children to accomplish achievable goals and tasks and by providing them with a sense of belonging and stability within your family, you are helping to build their self-esteem and self-esteem. Routine and order are important to your child’s mental and emotional health and well-being. Children who know the expectations that are placed on them and have the ability to meet these expectations are often happier and better adjusted than those who have no expectations or responsibilities. As you, as a parent, are just beginning to institute a system of household responsibilities within your family, it will be important to ensure that the responsibilities assigned to each child are age appropriate and within the child’s abilities to fulfill. Below are some ideas for age-appropriate household responsibilities.
Establish age-appropriate household responsibilities
You’ll probably be surprised at the many and varied ways your children will be able to contribute to your family’s household responsibilities. Even 2- to 3-year-olds can help with family responsibilities, and starting to learn at an early age how helping makes them an important and valuable part of the family. Also, children can learn adult skills by participating in adult tasks and responsibilities. Of course, you know your children better than anyone and can assign household responsibilities based on your child’s strengths, talents, and interests. In general, the chores you delegate to your children will depend on their age, and the following list is a suggestion of chores suitable for specific age groups:
Ages 2-4:
• Pick up toys or books and return them to their proper place.
• Help make your bed
• Help clean up the masses
• Take dirty clothes to the laundry
• Put clean clothes on coat hooks.
• Put (plastic) dishes in the sink.
Ages 4-6:
• Help with grocery shopping and put groceries away
• Set and unset the table
• Water the garden and plants
• Sort dirty clothes and put clean clothes away.
• Help adults prepare meals (must be supervised)
• Feed and provide clean water for family pets.
Ages 7-12:
• Washing the dishes
• Help with basic meal planning
• Cleaning the bathroom
• Cleaning and organizing storage cabinets
• Take the dog for a walk
• Help parents with grocery shopping
Ages 13-18:
• Mowing
• Take care of younger brothers and sisters
• Prepare shopping and meal lists
• Wash and hang clothes
• Take out the trash
• Mop floors and dust.
The goal of establishing household responsibilities
Children ages 2 to 6 enjoy helping with household responsibilities and often see these chores as fun adventures for adults. Even if your children can’t fully complete the task in a truly useful way, if by “helping” them they make an even bigger mess, your continued encouragement will foster excitement in your children and create habits that will be beneficial to them as they learn. grow and mature. Tweens and teens can take on increasing responsibilities as they get older, and older teens can handle almost any adult household responsibility. As the level of responsibility increases, the consequences of not completing these tasks can also increase. Your children will be able to see how their actions, or lack thereof, affect the whole family. For example, if one of your children decides to sleep in one morning, the whole family will be late and the routine will be broken for the whole day. This is a consequence that your children will be able to see and feel the effects of.
When rewards are appropriate
Some experts suggest that it is best not to give children of any age monetary rewards for completing household responsibilities. While this may be true for younger children (toddlers, preschoolers, and students), you as a parent may find it appropriate to provide tweens and teens with some sort of monetary reward due to the increasing level of responsibility assumed by them. your children. However, there are no written rules that require you to pay your children, regardless of age, to help with household responsibilities. You are free to make this determination based on your own convictions and the unique dynamics of your family.
Household responsibilities are a great way to give your children a sense of purpose, competence, ability, and importance within your family. Also, the stress he feels as a parent can be minimized because he has help completing necessary household chores. You can help your children understand why it is important for each family member to complete assigned chores by taking the time to discuss household responsibilities with the family. Getting everyone to do their part will not only help make your family stronger, it will also help each member of the family get stronger.