What chores would you expect from an 18-year-old living at home?

space_rider

My nearly 18 year old is doing A levels and doesn`t work. I work 3 days a week and I am doing a nursing course. She empties the dishwasher, puts away pots on draining board most of the time and cooks 1 meal a week here and 1 meal a week at her fathers.

tsabo

Cooking one or two meals a week doesn't seem unreasonable at all. Why not sit down before you do the weekly shop and plan the meals? This way you know what is happening, who is cooking what and when etc.
A cookbook aimed at students would be perfect really, they're so simple to follow and she'd be getting practice in before uni. The amount of people who go and have NO cooking or life skills is awful really!

space_rider

tsabo wrote: »

Cooking one or two meals a week doesn't seem unreasonable at all. Why not sit down before you do the weekly shop and plan the meals? This way you know what is happening, who is cooking what and when etc.
A cookbook aimed at students would be perfect really, they're so simple to follow and she'd be getting practice in before uni. The amount of people who go and have NO cooking or life skills is awful really!

I bought some good cheap simple cookery books from Tesco`s.

smartpicture

Right, thank you. I shall show her this thread tomorrow and move forward from there!

Gingham_Ribbon

robpw2 wrote: »

i wouldnt expect any they are 18 and they will let you down and youll end up doing it yourself
however i would hope they do help out

I wouldn't assume that someone was going to let me down just because of their age.

MrsE_2

TeetersOnHeels wrote: »

I too work full time - shifts, some days until 9pm. On those late days my 15yr old DS will hoover, sort the dishwasher if it needs emptying and is capable of putting a load of washing in. He does need a note leave to say what needs doing,(think he's got that bloke gene which means he doesn't automatically realise what needs doing ) but never moans.. So although he's not doing things around the house everyday, he's doing bits 2 or 3 times a week. He's wanting to join the forces when he leaves school, and I don't think it will do him any harm to realise his clothes don't wash and iron themselves!!!

Swap you for a 22 year old girl, what do you think?

kindofagilr

When I was living at home and I was 18 I paid £150 a month board (as did my brother).

I did my own washing, my own ironing, I cleaned my room, and we took it in turns to cook the tea for the family, I would hoover if I felt it needed it (we never had a bother with the cleaning of the house really)

laurajayne

We're all slightly older in this house - my parents, and me and my sister, both in our 20s.

We are, in effect, housemates. We both pay 'housekeeping' in line with our salaries, ie, my younger sister with a part time job pays less.

Instead of a rota, were x does y on a thursday, for example, we all have set roles in the house.

My sister is the housekeeper - she does the hoovering and dusting every day.
I'm the cook - unless I'm out (very rarely lol), I cook every day; and will often bake the families cakes/puddings etc. I always do the menu plan, and will always get the shopping, mostly with another person, but sometimes on my own.
Mum is the laundry woman - she does the washing/ironing.
Dad is general - he works shifts, so isn't always around, but will help whoever needs some help.

We can all do the other jobs, obviously, but that's just the roles that everyone's settled into. Works for us

ninky_2

one thing i do think is really important is if there are males in the house they shouldn't get away with not doing housework / cooking etc. i don't think it's right to teach girls that it's their job to do that sort of thing. let's not raise a(nother) generation of men who think that if they get the hoover out they are somehow doing a favour.

it's also an important lifeskill to learn how to put up a shelf, do simple DIY, change a tyre etc etc.

gorgeous_gwen

My mum would have cooked every meal for me when I lived at home but in my early teens I started wanting to cook my own food, mainly because I didn't really like what my mum cooked for dinner (sorry mum!)

It sounds like she's quite mature as you say but still wants a little bit of what she sees as the benefits of living at home to continue... Could you do as suggested earlier and maybe get her to muck in with preparing ingredients, maybe stick up a meal planner for the week so you don't have to worry about thinking about what to make for tea when you get in, and ask her to sort out some things such as peeling the potatoes, sticking stuff in the oven at a specified time, maybe make it a joint effort initially?