At what age should a child start doing chores and what kind of chores do you recommend?

Question

My sons are 7 and 8, are they too young to have chores? Should I give them an allowance for doing chores? I also need ideas for chores they can do... we have a housekeeper and a gardener, but I'd like them to teach them responsibility and I think assigning chores would be good for them...

Answer 1

I have three sons, ages 6,8 and 10. Here's what I do:

All three get a weekly allowance of $0.50 per year of age. They each have three piggy banks, marked "Spend", "Save" and "Share", and must distribute their allowance between the three (10% goes into the "Share" bank, and they decide the rest).

They are required to do the following chores:
-make their beds when they get up
-put their backpacks away in the right place when they come home from school
-pack their lunch (I make the lunch, but they have to put it in the luch box) and clean out the lunch box after school
-tidy their rooms once per week (we usually do that on Saturdays)
-help me fold clothes and put away their folded laundry
-when they are finished eating a meal, they must take their empty plates and put them in the sink.

That's stuff that they absolutely must do. Then, throughout the week, if there is other things that need to be done, such as sorting the recycling, dusting, taking out the trash, etc I get them to help. If I have to ask too many times, I deduct from their allowance. If I ask them to do a chore over and above the norm, I'll pay them a bit more (the other day, I paid my 10 yo a bit extra to sort some books for me).

Good luck, and congratulations on wanting to teach your young children responsibility!! Now is the time to do it, because when they are older it will be MUCH harder!

Answer 2

I think they should have chores it teaches responsibility. Start small, like making the bed, clearing their dishes, then work up. You can associate allowance with chores or not, it's also something you can deduct from as a punishment too, if they don't make their bed they lose $1. At 7 and * they are capable of doing a lot to Learn social responsibility too, helping others, etc. Maybe they could assist a neighbor or a grandparent, since many of the chores at your home are already spoken for.

Answer 3

Wow! Your sons are at the perfect age to start learning responsibility. Let them do a little weeding when the gardener isn't around, or a little window-washing or laundry-sorting when the housekeeper isn't around. Paying them to get their chores done is sometimes effective and sometimes not. Give them an allowance for doing chores, but don't let them have the money until they are old enough to decide for themselves what is appropriate and what is not appropriate to buy. Maybe fourteen or fifteen. Getting a pet, if you can afford it, is also a good way to teach responsibility. They can learn to brush, bathe, feed, and tend to the pet. Let them help with dishes occasionally, or leave the bed-making to the kids, excluding it from the housekeeper's work list.

Answer 4

Your sons are definently young enough to do chores. The problem these days is kids are doing less chores and getting more money. Your kids are definently too young to be needing huge amounts of money so i reccomend starting with having them:
pick up toys
making bed
cleaning their plate and putting it in the dishwasher
putting their dirty clothes in the laundry basket and bringing it to the laundry room on laundry day
Children expect rewards when they do hores so I suggest making a chart and giving them points for each chore they do/every day they complete all their chores. Give them rewards for accomplishing a ertain amount of chores. I'd also let them save up their points or spend some now. Also, give them "intrest" like 5% cash back at the end of each month. Its a great economics lesson. I also suggest making them a schedule showing them the days of the week and what chores they do each day. You can then change to iving them cash straight forward as they get older. (I say, give them their age in $s starting when they turn 11)

Answer 5

They're old enough to do simple chores like clearing of a dinner table, setting a dinner table, keeping their rooms clean, taking the dirty clothes hamper to the laundry room, dusting with a feather duster, loading the dishwasher, putting away groceries (with supervisions), etc. If you have pets they can help with that too (taking an animal outside to go to the bathroom, feeding, etc).

I would save more difficult chores (like vacuuming, cleaning w/chemicals, cooking) until they're around 11 or 12.

As for allowance, start off small and make sure what you only pay them if they do the chores. If they start not doing their chores, immediately with hold the allowance.

Answer 6

No, they are not too young to begin chores.
Goodness, call me a bad mom but i put mine to work on little things as soon as they can walk.They can "assist" you in almost any chore from a very young age.And little ones love helping mommy around the house.And as they get older, the less assistance they will need.It is always good for the children to have chores,it teaches resposibility and pride in their work.
Here are some of the chores mine have had and still have.......

(ages 1-6 need assistance,you cant just say go and do a certain chore.lol and you will most likely have o go behind them.)

Ages 1-2....... help pick up small pieces of paper from the floor.Help pick up a few toys.Help wipe the coffee table and end tables.Put things into the recycle bend.Place plastic dishes into the dish washer as you wash..hand them a dish to place inside.

ages 3-4.pick up toys.Help clean their room.help put away folded laundry.Help set the dinner table.Help wipe coffee table,end tables and dinning table.Help drag trash bag to the curb.help wipe down bathroom vanity.Pick up pieces of paper from the floor or lawn.Help put away laundry.

ages 5-7.......Take out the trash.Help clean the bathroom.Vacuum.Help sweep or mop.Help clean the lawn.Clean their own rooms.Put away laundry on their own.No folding alone yet,lol.Put away dishes that go in the lower cabinets.All of the above things for younger ages.And help dust.Help with very minor cooking.Pick up dirty laundry.

ages 8-9........take out trash,clean the bathroom,wash and put away dishes...if they can reach.Help with minor cooking.wash the car.Mow the lawn.Or clean the lawn.Clean their own rooms.help fold laundry.........

Now, don't get me wrong here. i donnot asign my children all of these chores at once or anything lol.I bring my 3 yr old along with me as i do mine and have him help a little.Or send him with an older child to assist there.Each child has atleast 3 chores that is within their capabilities.And yes, once a month we go to the store and i allow them to pick out a 20 dollar toy/prize for their work.

If you want to give your children chores you can assign them to trash duty,lawn clean up.Maybe help the house keeper or the gardener with one paticular chore.Or have them wash the car.Of course always make them clean their own rooms.Just little things, i know the gardener and the house keeper do have days off, so maybe assign them to do dishes while the house keeper is away.....something of that sort.And yes,by all means pay them for extra chores...but never for things they should be expected to do...such as cleaning up after themselves.
Nice parental move and good luck, hope your boys learn from it.:)

Answer 7

A child should start learning to pick there on things up at age three years old, then as they age each year add a little more to the list. My son is almost seven and he likes to vacuum, although he does not do a great job I let him try. At seven and eight years old I would have them putting away their on laundry and picking things up around the house as well as allowing them to learn to use the vacuum in maybe just their bedroom. They are not to young to sweep. Remember in the eighteen hundreds children thier age fed the chickens cleaned the horse stalls washed dishes you name it, our children are capable of doing more than we think. Just make sure you do a chart so that they are only doing a couple of chores a day.

Answer 8

Someone told me that an allowance has nil to do with doing chores. Although, I think that children can be rewarded by money for doing chores. I don't think that children should just be given money for doing nil to contribute to the household. Ages seven & eight are fine. They can set the dinner table & clear. They can keep their rooms in order daily as a responsibility. They can dust furniture, but don't have them dust where precious & expensive items are until they have aged a bit. They can pick up their things when they are finished with them to help keep the house in order. They can make their own beds & change their bedding, pehaps with some assistance. As they age, teach them how to clean around the house. Good for you for wanting them to learn responsibility.

Answer 9

i think that is a perfect age. To start you can make sure that they have their beds made daily. Also for helping you out during your daily household chore: During dinner time you can assign one of them to set the table evrynight(including place settings, condements.ect..) and one of them to clear the table everynightincluding putting condements away, wiping the table down). other chores to be done during the week could be taking the trash out (even if dad has to do the actual lifting to get it in there), Maybe one saturday a month they can help dad sweep out the garage or the patios. Just little things to teach them responsibility, and allowence is good, like 5$ a week that they can spend each week or decide to save it up for something they want... all of these will teach them the importance of working saving and spending

Answer 10

No, they are not too young. Boys can carry groceries, take out garbage, pull weeds in the lawn, etc. Even though you have hired helpers, they can do the smaller parts of some of these chores (so that you don't feel like you're wasting your money on hiring someone). They should not be rewarded for doing chores and I think allowance should be based on good grades and good behavior. Good luck and good parenting!