5 reasons why giving your child “chores” can be helpful:

Now that school is out for the summer, how do you keep your child occupied at home aside from play and screen time. Research suggests that including chores in a child’s routine as early as 3 years old can help them thrive. According to the American Academy of Children and Adolescent Psychiatry, children who complete chores may display higher self-esteem, become more responsible, and be better equipped to deal with frustration, adversity, and delayed gratification. These skills can later help with greater success in school, work, and relationships. With any routine, structure and consistency is key in normalizing chores for your child. Summer break may be the perfect time to start prepping your toddler, adolescent, or teen for chores. Taking into consideration that your child’s attitude and behavior towards chores may vary, here are 5 reasons why chores can be helpful:

Reason 1 - Teaches Teamwork:

As you work together with your child to do chores, they learn the give and take process of doing things together. This allows your child to work together toward a common goal. This could also make the chore easier and/or fun because they are working together with you. When the chore is completed, the child will have had a positive experience and look forward to working in groups/teams in the future with other children in school (or day care).

Reason 2 – Chance to bond with parent:

When you give your child the opportunity to do things together, they are learning to build strong relationships with you and others. Bonding with your child while completing chores can also help them learn about what they need to do to care for themselves, a home, and a family.

Reason 3 – Teaches Responsibility:

Assigning regular household chores helps children learn about responsibility and becoming self-reliant at the same time. By acquiring these skills at an early age, your child will be better prepared for adult responsibilities like, prepping meals, cleaning, and organizing. Tasks that personally affect your child, such as cleaning their room or helping to do laundry or putting away the dishes, can also help them become more self-reliant.

Reason 4 – Improve Confidence:

Children who complete chores experience higher self-esteem. When you verbalize out loud how great they are doing, you are helping to build their inner confidence as they hear how successful they are at completing chores. This will in turn boost their personal development as they get older and become more independent.

Reason 5 – Build Life Skills:

Chores also teaches children how to set priorities that will be important and beneficial for the future such as, cleaning up after themselves, maintaining organization, and developing work ethic. Like other healthy habits, the earlier your child learns to help out with daily duties, the likelihood they will continue to do as they get older.

Other benefits include:

·         Learning to build time management skills

·         Developing organizational skills

·         Accepting responsibility within the family dynamic

·         Learning to balance work and play

·         Setting a good foundation for functioning independently

The earlier you start with chores the better! Start off small…Depending on your child’s age here are a few suggestions to start with:

·         Putting toys away

·         Help with folding clothes

·         Brining in mail from mailbox

·         Help with taking out the trash

·         Sort through dishes/silverware from dishwasher

·         Help feed any pets

·         Put groceries away

·         Clear table after dinner

·         Sort through laundry (separate whites from colors)

·         Set the table before dinner

·         Make the bed

Remember, do what works best for your family. These skills may take a while to process for your child to get use to. There will be times where you may feel like taking over and getting chores done quicker, however, by helping your child develop these skills will only benefit them in the long run. A good way to keep track of your child’s chores is to use a chore chart. Depending on if your child can read, use words or pictures next to the chore. Once completed, use stickers as a reward (for every 3 or 5 stickers they get in a row they receive a prize – ice cream, extra screen time, or family dinner at one of their favorite spots).

No matter how big or small the chore is or how you choose to acknowledge your child’s hard work, remember to give them as much praise as possible. A warm hug and positive feedback will go a long way for a child.