This question comes up often on what age is a GOOD age to assign your little ones with chores. Is making their bed and cleaning up their room considered a chore or should that be their everyday tase/responsibility?
Although there is no EXACT age of when our kids should start doing chores, but I do believe that teaching them their daily responsibilities is a MUST. Right now Melia is 8 and Avery is 6. They do have daily responsibilities that they have to do. For instance, making their bed every morning, cleaning up their room before bedtime, setting up the table before dinner, and cleaning up the table after we eat. Those I do not considered their chores.
So what do I consider chores for them?
When I clean the house, is when they help me clean as well, and that’s when chores are assigned to them. They clean their bathroom (wiping the counter and throwing the trash away), help throw the trash away in all the other bathrooms of the house, dust/wipe their room down, and Melia is now learning how to vacuum her own room too.
TIPS TO SHARE
- The best advice I can give when your little ones are starting to do their daily responsibilities or chores, is to be patient. DO NOT expect it to be perfect. It will take time. For instance when it comes to making their bed. Let them make it. You can show them how it’s done at first, but after let them be the one to make their own bed. Don’t get upset or frustrated that it’s not the right or perfect. Once they get the hang of it, it will look better and better. What I like to do is, have my kids make their bed in the morning, and then later on, once they’ve gone to school I will fix it (if needed). After they got use to making their bed every morning, then you can step in (still without getting frustrated) and help them with properly knowing how to make their bed. The goal at first is to get them use to making the bed, and once they have that down, then you can show them how to properly do it… again if needed. This applies to all other chores as well. We can’t expect it to be perfect, so just let them get use to doing it first, go in an re-do it yourself if needed, and once they are use to it, then properly correct them on how to do it.
- Assign daily responsibilities. As I mentioned above, my girls have daily responsibilities life making their bed, cleaning up before bed, etc. They know that they are NOT allowed to turn on the tv in the morning UNLESS their beds have been made, and the same thing applies to cleaning up at night.
- Chose a day of the week to assign your little one(s) with their chores. We chose to clean on Sunday morning right after breakfast.
- Make it fun. We LOVE blasting Pandora music throughout the house.
- Want to make extra money? Give your little one an option if they want to earn some cash while taking on some other chore duties. Cleaning up the yard? Vacuuming all the rooms? Etc. It may not work all the time, but gives them an option to make a few extra bucks every once in a while.
Below, I’ve created a printable and pinnable chart of what age I think kids should start taking on daily responsibilities and weekly chores.
Leave a Reply