Involve Your Kids in Housework for Major Benefits

FUN, Family, Happy, How To, Ideas, Parenting, Solving Problems June 23rd, 2007

Feeling Overwhelmed?

Do you ever find yourself in this scenario: you have many things to get done around the house, the kids are restless, and you feel overwhelmed? You feel like you have to be in two places at once. You need to get the kids occupied and do all the household chores. Then there’s the guilt of letting the TV be the babysitter. And to top it off, at the end of the day, when it’s bedtime for the kids you feel bad because you didn’t really spend any time with them. Well there’s a solution.
toddler vacuuming
Involve the Kids!

If you involve your children in some household chores you and your children will reap many benefits:

spending time together
learning life skills
learning that work can be fun
training to be lifelong helpers around the house
work builds character, self-confidence, and self-esteem
laugh and talk time
housework completed
everyone will feel good at the end of the day

Ideas for Involving the Kids

1) Start Young. It’s never too early to start. And it’s never too late either. Just start small. Don’t expect perfection. Don’t expect speed. Expect to take your time and enjoy the time together. Add some music. Foster an fun environment. Let the goal be small successes and then build on them.

2) Cooking. Kids really love to help with cooking. It’s good to do a lot of talking and explaining. Even young babies and toddlers understand a lot more than we give them credit for. Ask them questions to let them show you how much they are learning. And give lots of praise. You’re looking for effort not perfection. Bonus: Kids who cook, will eat more healthy and varied foods!

Babies : Sit them in their high chair next to you. Talk to them and explain each thing you are doing. Give them fruit they can “wash” with a damp cloth or give them a small container of water that they can “stir” to be involved.
Toddlers: You can stand them on a chair next to you. (Don’t leave unattended) Give them small finite age appropriate tasks they can handle. Examples: washing fruits/vegetables in a bowl of water in the sink, drying off the produce, holding things, handing you things, pouring (with assistance if needed), and stirring. Keep in mind that the tasks you give them may be small for you, but for them, it is very exciting to be a part of this important grown-up task!
Older Kids: If needed, bring over a chair or have them work at the kitchen table. With older children, they’ll be doing a lot of the same things, but the difference is they can be more helpful. You can teach more complex ideas like measuring, temperature, timing and so on.

3) Cleaning, Tidying, and Gardening.

Babies : Before babies can walk it is a little harder, but there are things you can do. You can put them into a sling or baby carrier while you tidy and clean. Or you can put them into a bouncy seat, high chair or play yard. The key with this age group is to talk to them while you are working. As silly as it may seem, tell them what you are doing. The best thing you can do for your baby’s brain development is to talk to them a lot.
Toddlers: Once a child can walk they can: carry things from one place to another, throw things in the garbage (way fun for them!), hold a dust pan for you, sweep or push a Swiffer/dustmop (let the goal be “good enough” not perfection), wiping dust with damp cloth, pulling bed covers up, putting toys in toyboxes, pulling up weeds, etc. Safety tip: It’s a good idea to keep kids away from harsh cleaning chemicals.
Older Kids: Again, they can do the same things as toddlers, but you can expect a little better job. Praise for effort and give even more praise for improvements. Add music to make things fun. Make up silly songs, rhymes or raps along the way.

4) Laundry

Babies : The main thing is to talk to your baby. Talk about what you’re doing and about anything. Sing songs. Play peekaboo as you fold.
Toddlers: Give small tasks such as: hand me the next piece to fold, or show them how to do basic folding and piling. They may only fold 3 things while you fold all the rest, but that’s OK!
Older Kids: The key with older kids, especially if this is new for them, is to make it fun. Let it be a time to talk about things. Let them guide the conversation by asking them open ended questions. Ask them about things that interest them. Then show enthusiastic and genuine interest in the topics they like and they’ll open up. Singing and music can make it fun too. (Try to keep the TV off. Let this be together time!)

5) Groceries and Errands

On the Road: Most of the time the kids come along for the ride, but are they “involved?” How can you do this? Let them be in charge of the list of errands or the grocery list. Let them cross things off the list. Let them have the important job of letting you know what’s the next place we’re going to. For young kids, they can memorize this by repeating it and asking them “What’s next?” (Bring water bottles and easy snacks in case energy gets low for you and kids: apple wedges, cheerios, etc)

When you get home, let them help you put things away. Toddlers and bigger kids can carry things into the bathroom or other parts of the house. They can carry light bags in and they can help unload the bags. Then they can organize things into categories – cans, produce, cold things, boxes, etc. All the while, talk about the things, where they go, and your plans for cooking them! Be excited and the kids will be excited too. Instead of framing the task as a chore, frame it as how important they are to the household and to you, and how much you appreciate all their help!

Compensation?
Should you pay children for helping? That’s up to you and you may choose different methods for different circumstances. This is what I do and it works for me. I try to develop a desire in my child to be “mommy’s helper” by encouraging and praising for this. I reinforce this a lot. The reward is the praise.

For other tasks that are harder to get my child to do, I put together a reward chart where he’ll get stars or stickers for completing the task. He gets very excited about that. Once he has gotten a certain amount of stars then he’ll get a reward. I leave the “reward” open and vague. Rewards can be going to the park, going to the library, going to a favorite place, maybe a special treat from the grocery store or whatever fits in easily with what we’re doing. The main idea is that it doesn’t have to be a toy, cost money, or be big.

End of the Day

Rest together and talk about the all the great things you accomplished together. Tell them how proud you are, how grateful you are, and ask them how they feel? Are they proud of themselves? Did they have fun? Are they glad they helped mommy and/or daddy who works so hard for them all week? How about you? Be proud of yourself and smile!

Good luck!

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Comments

1
Brad Isaac
June 24th, 2007 at 11:30 am

I love to involve my kids in chores. There are several benefits like you mention.

What I like is… If my kids are getting rowdy and uncontrollable I start asking for help vaccuming the floor, dusting and picking up clutter. Usually about 15-20 minutes of helping, they quietly disappear.

It’s amazing how quiet they can be when there is plenty of work to do.

P.S. (OT) I like your subscribe sticky…where did you get that?
3
Daddy041
July 4th, 2007 at 7:35 pm

My daughter loves to help out at dinner time setting the table. She is also a great help after dinner cleaning off the table, and heping to put things back in the fridge and bringing dishes over to the sink. We thank her so much and it makes her feel great. She is 7 years old.
4
agentsully
July 5th, 2007 at 8:05 pm

@Brad – funny how that happens, huh?

@Daddy – that’s awesome. I always try to remember to take my own advice. I often forget, but when I remember it is golden time!

thanks for visiting guys!
6
Zach
March 3rd, 2008 at 7:21 pm

I totally agree. Involving your kids in housework shouldn’t be about helping you… it’s about develop their selfsteem and autonomy.
You might want to check out the chores your kids can learn, age by age.
7
food health
March 14th, 2008 at 2:03 am

I love to involve my kids in chores. There are several benefits like you mention.
8
buy baby sling
May 26th, 2008 at 10:44 pm

I agree as well. It is very important to get the kids involved with doing things around the house. Even if they dont actually help substantially, just them being there and taking part in the activity really does help.
9
online coloring pictures
September 18th, 2008 at 1:54 am

I am also agreed with the same as buy baby sling said, it was nice to visit your site i just loved it!!! Especially the picture takes the whole mark of this article..
Thanks for sharing!!!!
10
RC Toys
December 6th, 2008 at 9:37 am

Very informative post. As a mother of two cute kids, i really enjoyed to read it. And yes I agree with the author that we should involve our kids into daily chores. But you should also make sure that you DON’t Overdo it. Give them their own space.
11
Security monitoring
December 15th, 2008 at 2:46 am

Thanks for sharing! Healthy eating, get some posters and take in some healthy food. Get permission for the children to have a food tasting then you can use fruits they probably won’t have tasted, supermarkets have a great range of exotic fruits and veg.