Life lessons in doing chores

\’Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it\’ (Proverbs 22:6)

The purpose of chores

What is the purpose of doing chores around the house? The purpose of doing chores around the house is to ensure that your environment is safe clean and also that you’re fed and watered. How do chores benefit our children?

Chores also help build self esteem and purpose and a sense of ownership when they have chores to do around the house.

Chores help children to learn to take responsibility and accountability. According to a study by University of Minesota, involving children in household tasks at an early age helps them learn values and empathy. Chores also help build self esteem and purpose and a sense of ownership when they have chores to do around the house. Chores also teach children the concept of delayed gratification, which they can apply to various aspects of life at they grow.

Ideas on how to make chores fun or enjoyable.

Buying child size gadgets for carrying out chores can encourage children to take part in doing cores. My daughter had a small child size broom and whenever she made a mess she would gladly use it. My nieces\’ son had a toy vacuum cleaner and this also encouraged him to take part in cleaning the floors. At times I encourage my little one to wash her plate and cup by after eating and she enjoys it.

Should children be paid for doing chores?

I have never paid my two older children to do chores around the house, and this may have stemmed from my upbringing . Growing up, we had house help, but we still had to do a lot of chores. We took an active role in the running of the house day to day, helping with the cooking, cleaning, feeding the little ones as I had twin brothers who were nine years younger than me. I remember having to help the nanny to take the children to the baby clinic and I missing half the school day to do that. I do not remember my mother ever saying that I was going to be paid for anything that I did in the house.

I only came to know about children being paid for chores when watching TV and parents saying to their children, \’all your allowance has been cut because you did not do ABCD in the house\’. I found it really weird and felt that the kids in these films were spoilt.

I do not remember my mother ever saying that I was going to be paid for anything that I did in the house.

I had just assumed that my parents wouldn’t pay me for chores and that I was supposed to do chores as a payment for them providing me with, food, shelter and an education. It never once occurred to me that it was their duty to provide me with these basic needs.

Do chores help children to negotiate salaries and deals?

Now that I have children of my own, I wonder if not paying them to do chores might have stifled their negotiation skills at work for a pay rise or negotiation skills in business, because that could be another thing. I have never negotiated a pay rise myself and tend to accept whatever pay is offered to me when I have applied for jobs in the past. Are my children going to be exploited in work and end up doing more work than they have been paid for. Are they going to be able to negotiate a higher deals in the private business or side hustles.

Are they going to be able to negotiate a higher deals in the private business?

By not putting a monetary value to the day to day chores, are we missing a chance in teaching our children to recognise value in the work of their hands? Are we missing opportunities to teach our children to make the outside world recognise greater value in what they do.

How do we help our children value their skills and also value themselves. Doing chores also enable children to be able to negotiate different avenues in life. I find some of the chores that are not the normal chores could be used to help the children gain more negotiating skills in terms of the labour and time used to carry out the tasks. Example if you decide that you’re lazy to cut the grass and it’s usually your job is you do, you could get your son or daughter to do the cutting of the grass for you and give them incentive. You could pay them by treating them to an outing and you could ask them if he felt that was enough.

Paying them for chores and budgeting

By paying children, for chores undertaken, we also get to train children how to budget their money. If the child wants a toy or a gadget, that is not a basic need, you could let them do extra chores around the home. Give them an incentive to earn more money by doing over and above what they do on a daily basis. If you go shopping, make a rule that if they want anything they will have to use their own money.

Give them an incentive to earn more money by doing over and above what they do on a daily basis.

When my son had money given to him for his birthday, if we went shopping and he left his wallet at home, I would say to him, \’I will loan you the money and you will pay me back when we get home\’. I found that he would then re-evaluate if he really wanted to buy the item. He did not want to owe me money and he would say, its not easy paying you back as it feels like he never used the money in the first place. I realised that if he is using his own money, he would think carefully and budget before considering a purchase.

Charity begins at home

I also realised that when children control their own budget, you can also incorporate teaching your little ones about giving some of their money to charity and also tithing. When you only give them money for church offering, it is not the same as when they take money out of their own pocket to give to charity. They can also put money aside from their pocket money for those non-uniform days at school when they take donations to school

Are there other ways of getting the children to know their worth when it comes to being paid for chores? Are there other ways of teaching the children negotiation skills? Do you pay your children to do chores? Please feel free to comment in the comment box below. Do not forget to subscribe to the blog so that you will not miss out on any future.