Household responsibilities

Families can be hectic – there always seems to be something that needs to be done. Grocery shopping, paying bills, household chores, dropping the kids at school. Feeling tired, yet?

Everyone in the family can contribute to the running of the household. There are chores that you can share with other adults in the house. Children can help by doing jobs that they are old enough to do. With praise and encouragement, they often enjoy helping around the house. Show them that their help makes you happy and means they are an important member of the family.

Kids love responsibility – it makes them feel happy and successful. Start them off doing chores that they can complete successfully, like dusting or putting toys away.

The Raising Children website has some great ideas about kids and chores, including what jobs kids can do at different ages.

This article about sharing household responsibilities might help you to discuss chores with your partner and kids. And this article looks at how to start your kids off with chores.