Chores and Kids - A New Series! - The Purposeful Mom

When it comes to kids and chores, there are typically two schools of thought. One is that we should “let kids be kids” and not make them help us because it will ruin their childhood.

Another is that we should teach our kids responsibility and nurture their character as they grow up in our home and one way we can do that is through teaching them to help out around the house!

Our family has greatly benefited from the second “school of thought”. We’ve taken much joy in having our kids work together to create a more peaceful home, learn self-discipline through having responsibilities and it doesn’t hurt to teach them new skills that they’ll carry into adulthood as well!

Of course, it’s so important to teach them the value of hard work through chores and helping to serve others in a way that’s age-appropriate so they don’t get too frustrated. And sometimes it can be hard to figure out how to execute that. I have often been a hurry to teach my kids to pick up after themselves, when they really could have benefited from some gentle reminders instead of my nagging!

As we’ve gone from one to four kids in 10 years time, we’ve been learning how to best streamline the cleaning routine in our home and how to get our children to join in without (too much) complaining, making it a team effort that has had encouraging results!

I wanted to share some of the simple strategies that have worked for our family in teaching our kids to help in our home and learn life skills through doing chores and having responsibilities. We are not perfect at all, and are still a work in progress!

But I want to give you some ideas for creating a home-keeping routine that works for your family’s needs or, if you feel like you’re in a slump, help you to “reboot” with some fresh ideas!