4 Ways on How You Can Teach Your Children About Household Chores - November 2024

How do you feel when you foresee a pile of household chores on your way back from work? Do you feel exhausted, frustrated and helpless? If so, we are here to assure you that you are not alone. Photo credit to carapeterson.com On top of that, we are here to give you a hand. You can actually train your children to help in completing the household chores. Before we look into ways to get our children to help, let's discover the main reasons why children do not help out in household chores. Most children dislike dealing with chores. Most parents feel that it would be easier to do chores on their own. Most children feel that they can't do the household chores by themselves. Most children have occupied their time with schooling, extra classes and activities. Most parents tolerate their children's excuses when they are asked to do chores. As you can see, it really depends on us as parents whether to train our children to help in completing the household chores. Is it really important it is necessary for us to train them in completing the chores? 100% yes! It teaches them about responsibility and persistence which are crucial in their independent adulthood. Here are 4 effective and easy-to-apply methods that you should implement to get your children to help in the household chores. Mind that it takes time and patience to train our children in this journey of household chores. 4 Ways On Training Our Children to Do Household Chores #1: Create a daily and weekly responsibilities checklist for our children Photo credit to Motherhood.com.my Facebook Page In order to train our children into completing different household chores, we need to prepare a responsibility checklist. On the checklist, you can list down the daily and weekly chores that they need to complete. In ensuring the children complete what are on their checklists, you must first ensure that you delegate the chores that are age-appropriate. Referring to our guide above, you can develop a better checklist that enables you to divide the chores fairly among your children. To motivate your children more into completing the chores, you can even put the checklists at visible places such as on the fridge. Let the children feel the satisfaction and appreciation whenever they tick off their completed tasks! On top of that, allow them to play their favourite song playlist and sing along during the chores. Make the process a fun one by finding more joy in working together to complete the chores. Don't miss out on how you can clean with your children by using only lemons and toothpaste. #2: Show your children what you expect from them Photo credit to Pexels It is always best to give our children clear instructions and expectations. By giving instruction such as 'Please clean your bedroom', our children might perceive it as to only tidy up their bed. In fact, what you wish is to get them to arrange their belongings neatly and to reorganise their clothing. So, stop giving general and vague instructions that will only cause misunderstandings between you and your children. Provide precise instructions such as 'Please keep your toys in the basket' or 'Please empty the rubbish bin in your room'. Besides, we should also associate pleasure in completing household chores so that our children are more motivated to help us. The main reason children escape from doing chores is that they relate tiredness and pain with it. Therefore, by giving positive reinforcement such as verbal compliments and physical hugs and affections, your children will feel appreciated for their effort. Even though they do not complete the chores perfectly, you should always look into the positive side. This would drive your children to do even better during the next time. If you can't picture this, think about how you feel when others find the positive sides in what you have done as compared to finding faults in your completed task. Make your children see themselves as a contribution to the family. #3: Start off household chores with a cleaning game Photo credit to Unsplash Who says cleaning can't be a game? Involve your children in a cleaning game to make them interested in cleaning! As little children might not be able to differentiate between a neat and messy room, we can first start with explaining and showing them how a neat room looks like. Then, you can make a little mess by pulling a few things that they need to look into. For instance, you can leave their clothes hanging out of the wardrobe and their socks and toys on the floor. Then, your children would have to find out things that are out of their places and reorganise them. Integrate the element of fun into cleaning so that your children would enjoy the satisfaction of winning the cleaning game and therefore be more confident to complete their chores as time passes. #4: Make household chores a family commitment Photo credit to iStock The easiest way for children to make doing the household chores a habit is to observe their parents. Thus, it is not only about delegating the chores among the children but also having us to join them during the process. Soon, they will learn about chores can be completed quicker when every family member contributes. They will also learn that the extra time earned by working together can be used for other family activities such as game nights. During the process of completing the chores, our children will also get the opportunity to communicate and cooperate with others when we are working together as a family. With this, they can improve their social skills along with their sense of responsibility and hygiene management. It's Time to Delegate The Household Chores The process of training our children to stick to the routine of household chores can be frustrating at times. However, it will certainly benefit our children in the long run. So, stop making excuses and start training them now. Make them feel valued as a part of the family.

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