Giving Chores to Young Children
When your child is young, say between about 2-7 years, might be the only time in their childhood lives that they’ll be eager to take on household chores!
You should capitalise on that eagerness but not, of course, from the viewpoint of getting work out of them. It’s much more important as part of their socialisation processes.
Giving young children chores
This is less a question of “should you?” and rather more one of “try stopping your children asking for them”.
At a certain age, usually between about 2-3 years, your children will become increasingly desperate to emulate you and participate in what you’re doing. As they may see you doing a lot of things that to you are chores but which to them are very exciting activities, they’ll want to get involved.
Not only is there nothing wrong with doing so but it’s also a very beneficial thing to do – for the child’s development.
There are all the obvious fine motor skills development benefits. A child helping to wipe a table is gaining that. However, it’s also about them learning to participate in shared activities that are for everyone’s benefit rather than just their own.
So, your child may already have learned that clearing their toys off a table makes more space for them to put more toys on it but that is an immediate and personal advantage. By contrast, wiping a table down say 20 minutes for lunch means both a deferred benefit and one that is shared by all.
Learning about sharing objectives and activities to achieve them is critically important and chores are an important way of doing so.
What’s suitable
Well, expect any grandparents to object to you asking your child to do anything! They’ll have forgotten what they asked you to do at the same age and will think you’re being lazy.
In practice, there is a huge range of options. All you need to do is:
- make sure the task is well within your child’s capabilities;
- give them a demonstration in advance;
- keep it fun and try not to describe it as a ‘chore’;
- it should of course be perfectly safe;
- don’t get your child involved in a task that is an accident waiting to happen – like dusting a surface with your precious antique porcelain on it;
- it’s a smart idea to ensure it’s supervised at all times.
Remember to give lots of praise upon completion, even if in reality you’ve had to go back over it yourself! On this point, try not to let your child see you subsequently doing it ‘properly’, though that can be eased off a little bit for slightly older children when you’re trying to teach the right and wrong way to do it.
Specifically, avoid:
- laughing at what they’ve done (many children are very sensitive to what they see as ridicule, even from an early age);
- asking them to do it again as the first time wasn’t good enough.
Don’t expect these chores to hugely reduce your weekly workload but they can be great fun and a real development aid for your children. Remember too, that kids are smart – they’ll soon catch on to what you’re up to and start objecting in due course!
