Children and chores

bestpud

peachyprice wrote: »

I really don't consider teaching children to put litter in the bin and dirty washing in the basket as being household chores. Surely it's common sense, you don't just leave litter lying around for someone else to pick up?

Do your friends children really do diddly squat for themselves?

My youngest is 11 and I had to show her friend how to switch on a vacuum cleaner last summer (so they were 10 at the time). It wasn't at my house (I don't recruit her friends to clean my house!) but at a holiday home as I'd taken them away for the week and we were cleaning it before we left.

Then I had to show her how you push the head along the floor as she was struggling to work out which way up it went!

She had seriously never used one!

FBaby

Dreaming_always wrote: »

My friend is arguing that I am expecting too much of them, that kids should be kids. But her children are 2 and 3 and yet to cause true destruction yet lol.

My motto is once a child is capable of doing something he should be encouraged doing so as a routine task and that if someone does it for them at special times, it is out of kindness/love. Why teach children that even if they can do something, they shouldn't do it but let someone else do it instead? How is this good learning?

suki1001

bestpud wrote: »

My youngest is 11 and I had to show her friend how to switch on a vacuum cleaner last summer (so they were 10 at the time). It wasn't at my house (I don't recruit her friends to clean my house!) but at a holiday home as I'd taken them away for the week and we were cleaning it before we left.

Then I had to show her how you push the head along the floor as she was struggling to work out which way up it went!

She had seriously never used one!

I won't let my children use our vacuum cleaner until they're older and a bit stronger they're 9 and 11 now. Ours is really powerful, my oh nearly killed himself when he accidentally used the vacuum over the wire - it's so strong, it stripped the wire to the bare cable.

So it might not be that they are unhouse trained. Mine are great, i ask them to tidy and they do it. My son who's 9 asks to help and the other day said "I'm going to sort my desk drawer out - it's a right mess!" He's better at tidying the living room than me!

Rather than saying they have chores, I've brought them up to be very aware that the tidying and cleaning is not solely my role, that I am their mum, not their servant and that we are all equally responsible for the mess and we sort it out as a household.

pigpen

bestpud wrote: »

My youngest is 11 and I had to show her friend how to switch on a vacuum cleaner last summer (so they were 10 at the time). It wasn't at my house (I don't recruit her friends to clean my house!) but at a holiday home as I'd taken them away for the week and we were cleaning it before we left.

Then I had to show her how you push the head along the floor as she was struggling to work out which way up it went!

She had seriously never used one!

My daughters friend used to love coming here because she learned to vacuum and cook and did baking and changed bed sheets and used a washing machine and dishwasher... she was 15!!! She had never done any of those things before!!!!

She would ask me if she could do things!

Some parents are insane!

chandler91607

Teaching and guiding children how to be helpful actually helps in the development of their character. I always gently encouraged my children to do various 'jobs' around the house and now they do the same with their children. When the grandchildren aged 7 downwards come over I give them little jobs and (sometimes) they get even smaller prizes!!! For example one single Smartie or chocolate button for helping to put things away. They get so excited and although this is reward based at a young age it does gently encourage the concept of helping not only their parents but grandparents and others too. There is no reason for an over indulged child who does not even understand the meaning of helping and this can go somewhat towards breeding a rather unpleasant teenager/adult

Dreaming_always

peachyprice wrote: »

I really don't consider teaching children to put litter in the bin and dirty washing in the basket as being household chores. Surely it's common sense, you don't just leave litter lying around for someone else to pick up?

Do your friends children really do diddly squat for themselves?

I don't think they do, there's kids I know who are in year 1 and still don't dress themselves, you'd be amazed at how unindependent some children are.

OrkneyStar

Dreaming_always wrote: »

I don't think they do, there's kids I know who are in year 1 and still don't dress themselves, you'd be amazed at how unindependent some children are.

I am thinking yr 1 would be roughly equivalent to primary 1 in Scotland?
DS is in p1, and although he dresses himself, we choose the clothes together, sometimes laying them out the night before. He is not great at deciding whether something can be worn again (e.g school jumper or trousers). I used to be quite controlling re what he wore (here I mean weekend or when he could wear anything to nursery etc), trying to match stuff etc, now if it needs to be matched/smart we will select together, otherwise I say take the trousers/joggers from the top of that drawer, same with a long sleeved top, and choose socks, pants and vest that sort of go with it! I also get him to think about the weather and whether he will need more or less layers. He is a boy though and really wants just to be doing stuff and not faffing about choosing clothes lol!

balletshoes

Dreaming_always wrote: »

I was having a bit of a debate with a friend over the way I treat my oldest, she's 6 and a half and I fully expect that she should be capable of helping around the house whether its giving me her dirty clothes from her room, to picking up sweet wrappers that she and her little sister have left around.

Every few weeks we do a deep clean of her room, she's a very arty child so there's always paper and loose bits of rubbish everywhere. She's not expected to make her bed or anything like that , but just to pick up and keep her room tidy of mess.

Her sister is not yet two but we have been teaching her to throw rubbish in the bin and help mummy and daddy put things away, we are no means OCD clean but just want a liveable home that doesn't make us stressed when we look around.

What does everyone else do, am I asking too much of her? I personally don't think I do and I think a bit of responsibility is good for her, she's even getting on her soap box about litter on the street and how messy some people can be.

I think thats just right - nothing OTT about that at all. How are the children going to learn to do anything if they don't get involved when they are able to? I think its much harder to get older children to start doing stuff around the house if they've never had to do it when they were younger.

Dreaming_always

Year one in England children turn six so between five and six.

Lol I do that with my daughter but we solved the problem of random socks by only buying white socks so she can always match them

FattyBettyBoo

My 6 year old is expected to tidy up any mess she makes along the way e.g. pick up her clothes, put her rubbish in the bin etc. But it always seems a bit of a struggle. The alternative is to train the dog (Fatty Betty boo) instead as it may be easier. Inspired by this ...
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150406116270450