6 Parenting Tips to Get Your Kids Involved in Household Chores

Here’s the thing - kids do not want to do house chores because, admit it, adults do want to do them either.

However, motivating ourselves to finish our daily tasks comes with many benefits. This includes ensuring our family’s health and well-being, as well as making our house presentable.

Meanwhile, encouraging our kids to help with chores can help teach responsibility - though we know that it is easier said than done. That said, we have listed six tips that moms can use to get their little ones involved in household tasks to encourage good early habits while minimizing the power struggle.

Do it Early

Infants and toddlers can help around the house as long as you give them age-appropriate tasks. You can begin teaching your kids how to put away their toys. If you have a pet, perhaps you can ask your preschooler to put food in the bowl. And then you can give them more significant tasks, like setting the table, as they get older. The key here is to get your kids involved in house chores, even imperfectly, as early as possible. The sooner you encourage them to help out, the easier it will be for them to accept tasks as just a part of their routine.

Reinforce With a Noun

According to a study published on Live Science, reinforcing your kid’s desire to be a good person is better than giving your kids a direct order. The best way to do that is by addressing them as a ‘helper’ instead of asking them to ‘help.’ For instance - instead of asking, ‘Can you help mommy pick up your crayons?’ try saying, ‘Can you be my little helper and pick the crayons for me?’ The rationale is to make your kids feel that they are good people, and calling them ‘helpers’ reinforces that feeling.

Show Them How It’s Done

Let’s face it. It wouldn’t be fair to ask your kids to do a task without showing how it is done. After all, they learn best through imitation. The experts at Cleaning Exec House Cleaning NYC recommend demonstrating even the simplest of tasks multiple times - even something as putting the crayons away. After that, you may be surprised to find your toddler bursting with pride while putting the crayons away herself.

Build Rotational Routine

A great trick get your kids involved - in stay involved - in house chores is to make it a routine. For instance, your preschooler can feed his pet fish as soon as he’s back from school. However since kids can grow tired of doing things over and over, try mixing it up a bit using a ‘rotational routine.’ So for example, this week your preschooler fed his pet fish every day after school. But next week, he can help sort the laundry. Bonus - this gives ample opportunity to vary teaching moments - for example, teaching them about colors and comparison and contrast when doing the laundry etc.

Remember to Give Praise

If you want to motivate your kid to help you with house chores, don’t forget to give plenty of praise! This includes saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you.’ Once they are done, thank them and let them know that you are proud of their work. Doing so reinforces that helping with house chores is a positive and rewarding experience in more ways than one.

Set Up a Reward System

Another way to praise your kids is to set up a reward system. But keep in mind that reward is not equal to money.

There are different ways to reward your kid for helping you with house chores. One popular way is using sticker charts. Every time you get to address your kid as your helper, you can ask them to place one sticker.

And every time they complete ten stickers, you can reward them with an activity or snack of choice. You can also offer a wildcard, letting them do whatever they want to do (within reason), such as licking peanut butter from a scoop.