The Power of Chores: How to Motivate Kids to Help Out Around the House

Groans of dissatisfaction, finger-pointing, and dragging of feet usually follow when it comes to doing chores. Kids, and even adults, seem to dread the activity because of its monotonous and repetitive nature, intruding on more enjoyable hobbies.

Dishes pile up, dust bunnies settle, beds left unmade, and toys scattered everywhere. One can postpone finishing up household chores only so much before bugs, allergies and lack of space announce their presence due to negligence.

Your condo unit in Makati deserves more attention and care to retain its coziness and feelings of home.

Household chores don’t deserve to be treated as something unsavory, given the lessons they can teach to both children and adults. They are a necessary life skill especially for independent living, serving as effective training exercises for real life.

Teaching the merits of responsibility, household chores develop an awareness of what it means to be part of a group where everyone has their role to play.

Sometimes being an active member of society means fulfilling routine activities. Achieving a goal also takes repetitive and deliberate actions called habits to be successful in life.

By helping kids to be comfortable with doing chores at an early age, parents are setting them up to be happier and driven adults in the future. Here are a few ways they can motivate their kids to help around the house.

4 Ways to get kids to help with chores

Photo by Gustavo Fring 

1. Start at an early age

One mistake we often make as parents is that we don’t get kids involved early. When kids are really young (toddlers), all they want to do is help around with everything.

They are always happy and excited to do any chore at all. But that is the time we don’t let them help. We send them away when they try to help and when they are older and now have new interests, we try to get them to help with chores.

It is important that you start getting kids involved early. Let them help when they want to. Yes, that means it will take longer to get things done or they might even end up making more mess.

But if you let them help at this stage, they develop a positive attitude towards chores and before you know it, they will be getting things done when you haven’t even asked.

2. Use chores as bonding time

Younger kids like to spend as much time with their parents as possible. Whether it’s playing make-believe, telling an engaging story, or asking questions on things they’re curious about.

Parents can use doing chores as a way of bonding with their kids and honing their imagination. Instead of asking to pick up their toys, why not make it into a game?

The toy cars and dolls need to be placed in their proper places before the evil monster will trap them in jail never to be seen again.

If kids are a little older, chores time can be used to ask about their day and what happened in school. You can even choose to tell a memory from when you were a kid or teenager.

3. Utilize rewards as an incentive

Everyone needs an end goal in mind to be able to push through a task especially when the task is not enjoyable or fulfilling. Using rewards is effective in motivating children to struggle to get chores done.

Promise a fun activity after they’ve completed their assignments. It can be a trip to the movies, an ice cream date, or a new toy. Parents can teach them a lesson that sometimes people have to focus on the end goal in order to get through activities that they don’t like to do.

4. Value their contribution by offering praise

Kids will associate positive emotions to chores if parents give affirmation to a job well done. If they make mistakes, it’s better to teach them the right way instead of reprimanding and scolding.

It’s sometimes tempting to do the chores yourself but this creates a space for resentment that other household members are not pulling their weight. So instead of just doing it yourself, show them how it’s done.

Take the time to explain what each person did right and wrong and that it’s okay to fail as long as one learns the lesson and improves continuously. Your future self will thank you when you can rely on your kids to fulfill the chores assigned to them.

Chores can be reframed from being a necessary evil to a learning opportunity on responsibility, accountability, and contributing to a group. Parents can teach their children these basic skills with proper motivational techniques, ensuring they grow up to be well-functioning adults.

SEE ALSO:
HOW TO MAKE YOUR CHORES EASIER
HOW TO ENCOURAGE KIDS TO EXERCISE
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