Teamwork through Chores for Your Children
You don’t have a dozen children for you to have your own team. What you see in the movie “Cheaper By The Dozen” maybe cool but that is very painful to your wallet.
Two or three children are enough to teach them about teamwork and letting them do their share of chores can do this.
Convince your children to get the job done. A majority of parents have to beg, cajole or even bribe their kids to assist in the household chores. Yet they still end up to be the one mowing the lawn, washing the dirty dishes, making the beds and walking the dog.
Parents often ask this question, “How can we make our children do the chores around the house? More importantly, how do we make them do it without being reminded?”
Chores are the building blocks children need in life. They teach them basic skills and help build personal responsibility. It also teaches them a sense of duty and importance.
Getting chores done will be a lot easier if parents motivate their children by saying that this is a team effort. Their household is the base and each one is a game player. Therefore, the action of one affects everyone, so does one’s inactions.
Failure to clean the bathroom as scheduled means everyone will have to take showers on grimy floors. Failure to walk the dog means a member can simply step on poop inside the house.
Designating chores to the children not only gets the job done, they also help in children’s growth development.
1. Parents can make their child feel important by letting them know that they need an extra pair of hands.
2. Parents can spend more time with their children by teaching them how to do some household work like laundry, cleaning and cooking. Then they can let their children do these themselves. In that way, the children are doing the chores, bonding and also learning how to do it together.
3. Parents must designate the chores depending on how old the child is. Expected chores should be suitable to the child’s ability and skills. Sometimes, for a young child, helping out in the house gives him the idea that he is important – and a crucial part of the team.
4. A majority of the chores are located in the kitchen. The kitchen is the heart of the home. Parents can fix up a schedule on who would do the dishes, the cooking, setting and clearing the table.
5. Laundry is also important and it is advised that children are taught to do it at an early age. By putting their dirty clothes in the hamper, children are already taught the basic laundry rule. As they get older, they can be taught how to sort out the laundry and assist in folding and putting away the clothes. If they are old enough (probably late teens), they must already know how to run the washer and the dryer. This is done before they go off to college.
Teaching children how to do chores is easy. Motivating them how to do their share is another thing.
Here are four factors motivating children to do the chores themselves:
- Parents must serve as responsible models by doing some of the housework themselves.
- Parents must have a caring and nurturing relationship with every child.
- There must be cooperative culture inside the home. Help each other out and do things together.
- Parents must look at chores as opportunities for them to teach their children values and life skills.
Children need different levels of support and help at different ages. Parents must learn how to work side by side with their young children. They older they get then the less the parents must be hovering beside them.
Some households reward children doing chores by giving them an allowance. This shouldn’t be connected to fundamental chores. Chores and allowance must be separated. By accomplishing chores, the child must feel that the action he completed is fulfillment itself. He does not need to get money to feel compensated.
An important point to remember is that parents must try to instill in their children why chores must be done. To add flavor to it, they can give a pep talk on how they, as a family, are one team and there’s pleasure in work when everyone is responsible and productive.
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