Jobs At Any Age

What contributes to a happy household is one that has all members contributing and helping with chores. When everyone in the family does their part there is more time to enjoy together and a sense of accomplishment can be felt by everyone!

Did you ever have a two year old wanting to mimic you and ‘help’ with chores like vacuuming the floor or putting the clothes in the wash basket? Why not harness that enthusiasm at that young age? Let them learn through experience…

Children ARE capable of completing many little tasks around the house to help you with the daily chores! There are some very age appropriate tasks that even the littlest member can complete and it is all very beneficial for children’s independence, self worth and confidence to have tasks in the home to complete regularly.

As a parent, there are so many jobs and chores to complete each week and we all have those times when it can get a little overwhelming. Not to mention, there are so many times when you race around the house feeling as though you are doing everything while the kids (and maybe your partner!) sits around and does nothing! Right…? NO MORE!

If you have felt this way I ask you to check in with your situation now and decide whether it is time to delegate a few jobs to help you manage around the house. Not only is it helpful for you to have jobs taken care of by others but it is actually helpful for your children too. Aren’t they going to be adults one day too, living independently and completing chores? Don’t you want them to feel confident and independent enough to handle all those little things that need to be done? You have the power to support them to be independent adults but you need to start now! Yes, even if your kiddo is 3!

Ok, so let’s just put it out there that I am not saying your 5-year old can clean the toilets! Oh how I wish I didn’t have to wipe his wee off the seat or floor EVER again! While that would be nice, there are much more safe and age-appropriate jobs for your kiddo.

The key here is to include the children in the chores so that they feel that they are being helpful, useful and successful. Ask them to do one job, demonstrate to them how you like it to be done, let them have a try with you there to support, guide and correct if necessary. Praise their efforts. Once you think they have got it, then they are good to go. It can become their regular job. After a little while of successfully managing that one job, introduce another. 2-4 jobs per week or 1 job a day is a good start!

When my littlest was 3 it became his ‘job’ to take the washing out of the machine and place it in the basket for me to hang out. At the same time, his older brother’s job at 6 was to take the rubbish out.

A few years on and they still have their jobs which also includes such things as taking out the rubbish bins, putting their laundry baskets in the laundry on washing days, making their beds, feeding the dog, setting the table every night and emptying the dishwasher (this is a job that Mr of the house has not done in 4 years! Thanks kids!).

It feels so good to have help. It feels so good to think that my little boys will grow up to be so capable and successful to manage their own household chores. By starting when they are young, they just know that chores are a part of life. They are not jobs that only the adults do. They are jobs for families to do together.

In case you are wondering, I don’t believe there is a need to offer pocket money or rewards for completing household chores…. Unless you really feel your child needs an extrinsic motivator. If you start young enough, they are unaware of these external motivators and just learn that this is what we do in our house. As they are becoming older and more capable at the bigger jobs such as mowing the lawn, weeding and cleaning windows, we might be negotiating a little pocket money to spend in school holidays!

HOT TIP: If your kiddos are starting out and are a little older (i.e. over 7) then early on in their journey of helping with chores, you can make a big deal of how much time it saved you that week! Celebrate with a special treat like watching a movie or playing a board game together (with all the spare time you have left after everyone completed their jobs!) This will boost their self-worth and encourage the enthusiasm to continue the next week especially when it means that mum and dad have a little more time to spend on fun things!