The Benefits of Getting the Kids to do Chores – Raising a Successful Child – Part 1

I read an article that talked about the things that parents of successful children have in common. I decided to take each of the 10 topics one by one and expand on them as well as start a conversation on my facebook page at my regular Friday Live Stream.

Our first discovery was this: Parents of Successful Children make their children do chores.

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It’s backed by science and the evidence is clear: Children who do chores when young have a better chance of growing to be successful adults.

As parents, we have different opinons about whether or not we should make our kids do housework and there have even been arguments about whether we should pay our children an allowance for doing their chores.

(You can join that conversation on facebook.)

However you approach it, there are several benefits of getting your child to do chores around the house:

We get help around the house:

This can be a pitfall because I know sometimes as a parent you want a job done well so you just go ahead and do it yourself. This may be convenient in the short term but you are doing your child (or teenager) a disservice if you continue to pick up after them, do their laundry and so on. They may not get it done perfectly at first but if we are patient with them, they will get better at the little jobs.

You are teaching them Teamwork

When a child does chores around the house – no matter how small, they get to learn that a big job is done when eveyone does their bit. This is a great for their adult life – both at home and work.

You make them Self Sufficient and Self- Confident.

They learn that they can take care of themselves. Clean up after themselves. shop for themselves, cook for theselves and so on.

They Learn Responsbility

This is similar to self sufficiency. When a child know that a particular job is “assigned” to him, he begins to take ownership of that job. This is the beginning of responsibility. When you know that if you dont do something, noone else will do it.

They learn about Structure

If your child does a chore every day or once a week or every morning or every evening, it gives them some structure to their life. They learn about structure and about priorities.

They get a sense of fulfillment.

One cannot dispute the sense of achievement when a job is finished and you get a well done. As a parent, always remember to say well done, to your kids – young or old.

They become self-disciplined and self-directed.

Discipline is simply doing what needs to be done even when you dont feel like it. When your child does chores, he or she may not feel like doing it all the time, but as time goes on, it becomes natural for them to fulfill their commitments and build the habit of discipline.

We love our children and we dont want them to struggle in later life. When you look all these benefits, it is easy to see how they can become habits and help them develop qualities that will help them excel in academic, business and career pursuits in later life.

I would love to hear your thoughts or questions on this.

Please leave a comment or join the conversation on facebook.