The 8 Benefits of Having Your Kids Do Chores

Ugh, chores.

Kids hate doing them and parents hate making kids do them.

While it may seem easier for parents to turf the idea of having their kids do chores and simply complete the tasks themselves without argument, they are not doing their children any favors.

Children are so much better prepared for the adult world when they grow up with the responsibilities of chores.

If you are debating whether or not to implement chores in your household, consider the benefits doing so would have for your child.

Chores Versus Responsibility

Before doling out the chores for your children, it’s important to recognize the distinction between responsibilities and chores.

Responsibilities are age-based tasks that should be done on a regular basis without a reward. Tasks such as making the bed, putting away clothes and doing laundry are considered to be responsibilities.

However, in order to have your child complete these tasks routinely, you may want to begin by rewarding them for doing so. After a while, you can scale back the reward to only include actual chores.

Actual chores are those tasks that benefit the entire household. Things like doing dishes, taking out the garbage or sweeping and mopping the floors are considered to be chores.

Overall, what matters is having your child motivated to do any sort of household-related task. In doing so, they will experience the many benefits of doing chores:

1. It Teaches Them Teamwork

When the whole family works together to keep the house clean and organized, children become productive contributors to the household. In doing so, they develop a strong sense of family connection and learn the skills necessary to work as a team.

2. It Helps Them Learn Responsibility

Once children are expected to complete their chores, they become accountable to themselves and to the entire family. Since it becomes up to them to finish their chores, they learn responsibility and self-reliance.

3. It Helps Them Develop Independence

Being able to take responsibility for completing chores helps your child develop a sense of independence. Once they are out on their own, they will have developed the life skills important to living a successful adulthood.

4. It Builds Their Self Esteem

Children face many downfalls in their lives – getting a bad grade, being rejected by a friend, losing the big game. However, chores are one aspect of their lives that they can rely on being successful in.

Because they know they can be successful in helping the family maintain a tidy household, they learn how to take pride in their work as well.

5. It Teaches Them Respect

Being a parent and managing a household is hard work. Children inherently do not understand the burden that parents carry from day to day.

However, having them contribute to the chores will help them gain insight and appreciation for what parents do on a regular basis.

6. It Helps Them Develop a Work Ethic

When you reward chores with either money or something equally valuable to your child, you are preparing them for the working world. Adults do the same thing – exchange work and time for money.

Helping your child develop this work ethic is also beneficial for when they are adults since they will feel encouraged to work outside the home when they get older.

7. It Helps Improve Their Time Management Skills

Children who are expected to complete chores learn to balance this task with many others in their lives such as homework, sports, extracurricular activities, social lives and play.

They will learn how to prioritize their tasks and be less likely to refuse to do chores once they realize that they will have plenty of time for more enjoyable activities.

8. It Helps Develop Their Gross and Fine Motor Skills

The earlier you engage your child in helping with chores, the more beneficial it is to the development of their gross and fine motor skills.

Gross motor skills involve larger muscle groups and can be developed through activities such as sweeping while fine motor skills use smaller muscle groups and can be strengthened by chores such as folding socks or picking up cutlery to set the table.

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