Chores Why do we do them?
If I think about it I don't think anybody likes to do chores, but we know that someone has to do them.
In most families our children are expected to help us do the chores around the house some complain and others just do it because that is the way things is done. But there is also other families where parents don't expect too much of their children and the children are very eager to oblige them.
Researchers have found that it is in the Western World that children are consumers rather than contributors. The children of today just play games or go out with friends, they spend most of their time alone in front of the tv or the internet. Parents just give them money to make up for the fact that they leaf them alone so often, and they also feel guilty about asking them to do things so they rather leaf it.
Parents feel that their children's weeks are already so full with activities that they must rest when they get home. This is not true a child actually needs to do chores.
Firstly it promotes unity in the family if we help each other we feel that we belong especially the child and he/she see that they also have a responsibility towards the rest of the family.
Secondly it contributes to the child's maturity, he/she learns self-discipline and they get more confident they also strengthen their character this way. A child who does chores around the house is also doing better in school because he develops these important life tools at home.
Thirdly when a child preforms chores at home he/she learns the importance of serving others. It learns the child to put others needs before him or herself. It is very important to let them help around the house otherwise they only want to be served all the time.
What can we as parents do to correctly teach this to our child
- Give the right reward. It must be in such a way that the child is not just doing the chores to get the reward, it must be to learn that we do work to get payed but we must also enjoy what we do.
- Give them age-appropriate chores. It must be something they can do and feel that they have done well.
- Start to teach them to help when they are still young, They love to work alongside mom or dad and they like to imitate us.
- Try to focus on the objective rather than the result. It is likely that your child is going to take longer to complete a task than you and that it is not going to be 100% right, you must be very careful not to want to take over from them , let them finish it. They must discover for themselves what joy it brings to complete something and to be responsible for something.
Go on, have fun with your children big or small and complete those chores with joy!
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