As a current/future parent, at what age do you believe you should teach your children about house chores?

Question

As a current or future parent, at what age do you believe is the right age to teach your children about doing chores around the house?

These household chores include ckeaning the dishes and putting the dishes away, doing the laundry, cleaning their room, and keeping the house clean.

Answer 1

I think it's best to start with small, age-appropriate tasks from the time they can understand, and then move up to more complicated tasks as they get older.

My daughter doesn't even talk much yet, but I will ask her to help me put her blocks back in the container or put her dirty clothes in the hamper. (Of course at this point it takes a lot longer to do something with her "help" than it would take to do it myself, but she's learning.)

I'd expect that a 4 or 5 year old could start to do a few things independently, like make his bed (after being shown how) or carry dishes from the table to the sink after dinner. I wouldn't let them use cleaning products unsupervised at that age, though. By the time they are 7 or 8 they can probably do most basic household chores like washing dishes, doing a load of laundry, vacuuming, etc. as long as they are given specific instructions. They might also need a step stool to reach cabinets, washing machine controls, etc. And I would say by 11 or 12 they could start to handle more complex tasks without a lot of handholding, such as doing several loads of laundry including separating, washing, drying, folding, and putting away, and at that age I might also expect that they be responsible for doing certain chores regularly without needing to be reminded, such as taking the trash out on trash day. Teenagers can probably do things like cook dinner or mow the lawn and should be able to be notice that certain tasks they are responsible for need to be done (such as putting dishes away out of the dishwasher whenever it's needed, or being fully responsible for their own laundry).

So I think it needs to be a gradual process of learning how to do household tasks and giving them increasing responsibility as they get older.

Answer 2

I think its very important to start at an early age teaching our children responsibility. Starting with the picking up of toys that are scattered all over the living room or bedroom after an afternoon of delight. lol However, i dont think there is a specific age that you can say they are ready. You have to put into retrospect, their school activities and functions as well.
I will say this, be careful. My neice is now 14 and lives with my brother (her daddy) and her brother (15). She has been the "woman of the house" since the age of 7. She cooks and cleans and does all the laundry. She honestly doesnt know that this isnt a normal thing for her to do. I go and kidnap her and bring her home with me and give her a break. lol She never complains about it, but her brother does nothing. She takes care of the two men in her life. This is good grooming for family life later in her years, but i feel she has too much responsibility. She needs to be a teenage girl first and foremost.
Good luck to you.

Answer 3

I think you should start as early as possible, now that's not saying that you should expect an infant to drag out the vacuum and vacuum the whole house.

Once a child can follow through with a simple instruction , you can start... like after a session of play .. you can say something along these lines " Put the Red Block in the Toy Box".... That kind of thing ...
then when they are a little older they can start to dry some non-breakable dishes...just little chores :)

it actually doesn't matter though when you start to train them because by the time they hit their teen-age years they will have forgotten all you taught them and would prefer to live in squallor and not help out around the house without going "AWWWWWWWWWW DO I HAVE TO ???"

;)

i am sure though that many don't go through that stage :)

Answer 4

The younger you start the better. Have them help put toys away when they are toddlers. I wasn't very good at this (not a great housekeeper myself) and my kids are terrible about cleaning up after themselves. My fault entirely.

You can't have your children as maids. That is not the point of having kids; but it is reasonable to expect them to keep their spaces clean and to help around the house. I don't think a child should be washing dished until they are old enough to be trusted with a sharp knife. Laundry can start when they are tall enough to reach the washer and old enough to be trusted with chemicals.

I had to wash dishes every other night starting about age 9. I had to help with weekly house cleaning as long as I can remember(possibly in utero). I didn't do my own laundry until High School because I was terrible with bleach and dry clean only items. My kids are 12 and 5 and they sort of help with housework and my 12 year old put away the dishes. They both help with firewood.

Answer 5

I have a little girl. When she is five 3+ I will clean her room with her and get her help. I will make it fun..but not expect her to do it herself. It will be a training session in progress. I will start by saying "help me put the laundry here". "lets put away your toys so we dont step on them and hurt ourselves". I will do that for about ten minutes to start. Then when my daughter hits about seven she will be expected to keep her room fairly clean. I was doing dishes with my sister at nine years old. That was hard work...but now I value a clean home. I wont push her to do dishes at nine..but at around nine ten she will be able to vacume and then she can do dishes if she wants to earn more on her allowance. When she is a teenager..id rather have her focusing on her studies and teaching her how to cook then have her washing up the supper dishes. She would learn more from cooking the meals then doing the dishes but will be expected to help out with the house hold chores on teh weekends...like doing the bathroom and vacuming once a week...as a teenager she will also be responsible for her own laundry.

Answer 6

I think that people should start young with there kids on doing house hold chores even if you start when they are 16 months old just by trying to get them to keep their rooms clean cause I feel that if you start when they are young with keeping things clean..and with doing that they will know that they need to keep there room clean when they get older but with like house hold chores llike doing dishes laundry..etc...untill they are between the ages of 10-12

Answer 7

At 4 and 5 my childrens knew that freshen up time become significant. we may sing the freshen up song even as they picked up their toys. They knew to take their plate to the sink even as they were carried out ingesting. Now my older childrens are 10 and 11 and they have conventional chores. They receives a fee a million dollar in step with day in the experience that they finished each of the chores on their record. The chores are continuously an identical. It makes my homestead bypass a lot smoother to have all of us assisting out. Their chores are : sparkling their room, take out trash, do dinner dishes and sparkling the front room. they could also do more effective chores in the experience that they try to save money for some thing. between the the time they were little and now we tried the chore chart with stickers, yet that did not seem to inspire them very a lot. Now they comprehend what's anticipated and that i often do not even could remind them to do it.

Answer 8

you should teach them at 1 year old. There is no reason why a one year old can't help out in one way or another. My girls didn't do much, but they did something. When I would dust, I would give them a dust rag. They didn't really clean so much but they helped. My oldest will be 3 in April. Right now she helps me with laundry, dries dishes, picks up her toys, puts her clothes away, cleans her room, and helps me make the bed. My youngest will be two in April. Right now she also helps me with laundry (they toss the clothes out of the washer into the dryer), picks up her toys, and helps clean her room. Teach them as soon as they understand.

Answer 9

I think this is something they should be taught about from the beginning. I know a baby can't do house work, but what I mean is....when your child is able to start pulling things out of the toybox...try to teach them to put things back too...make it a game....

As they progress and get older and can handle more things, start teaching them more things. I would think it's more difficult to not make them do anything in the aspect of house chores, then suddenly one day say...ok, now your older, so you need to clean you rroom and put toys away ect.

Answer 10

It all depends on the chore. I try to involve my son in as much as possible even from now, and he is only 19 months. He helps put his toys away, helps me mix things when cooking, stands with me as I'm doing the dishes and I tell him about it, he puts away the microwave dishes, and helps put things back in the fridge. If you teach them about everything you are doing, and let them do anything they are capable of doing, it doesn't have to start at a certain age, you just gradually add things as their capabilities increase.