Raising children isn’t easy. You want to make sure they have a happy and stress-free childhood, but you also want to ensure they grow up with a sense of responsibility and hard work. One way to compromise between these two ideals is to assign your kids some chores to help you around the house. By giving your children a few small tasks to complete on a regular basis, they’ll learn important life skills such as responsibility and how to give back.
Wash the Dishes
While most children aren’t reliable enough to cook their own meals, that doesn’t stop them from creating a ton of dishes. Instead of handling them all on your own, teach them just how quickly they build up by having them start washing dishes after dinner. They’ll see how plates, silverware, and cups can pile up and may even alter their dish usage to reduce the amount of cleaning you need to do.
Change Air Filters
Maintaining your air filters is an important part of keeping an HVAC system running smoothly. One part of that is changing your air filter. Doing so will improve your indoor air quality and reduce pungent odors coming from your AC. On average, the filter should be replaced about every three months, so create a chore calendar to remind your child when it’s time. This type of chore will help them develop long-term reliability and give them some experience with more mechanical tasks.
Feed the Pets
Making sure the dogs or cats have food and water on a regular basis is vital to their survival. Therefore, it’s a great task to give to your children to teach them how to take care of others. Obviously, you’ll want to monitor their performance, as you don’t want the pets to go hungry if the kids forget. However, once they realize just how important this task is, they’ll hopefully always do it by themselves.
Fold the Laundry
Laundry is one of those time-consuming tasks that seems like it’s never-ending. Children are especially big contributors, as they’re constantly needing fresh clothes. Help them understand just how big a task it is by enlisting their help with folding. It might make them more conscious of just how much work you do. They might even try harder to stay clean.
Take Out the Trash
There’s more to trash than simply dragging it out to the curb. You have to make sure the recyclables are sorted and account for any delays in pickup due to holidays. Giving your children this chore will help them manage this type of schedule on a weekly basis. It might also make them rethink how much waste they create, as less garbage is less to carry outside.
Once you’ve determined which chores to assign your children, create a chore chart and offer rewards for when they successfully complete their tasks. This will help them realize the importance of being responsible and sharing workloads.
