Children and Chores

Why Doing House Chores Helps Children Become More Successful in the Future

Guest Post by Hannah Tong

Household participation is vital to building a purpose-driven life for your kids. Having a purpose is what will save your children from despair when the challenges of life become overwhelming for them. In this post, let’s talk about why doing house chores helps children become more successful in the future.

Remember that they won’t complete the job perfectly. What’s important here is not the real chores but the enormous benefits that come from doing them.

1. Chores help children become more successful adults

At the age of three or four, allow your kids to help you with household chores. They’re more likely have a closer relationship with you, have better relationships with their peers, and avoid drugs.

If you gave them jobs when they’re younger, they develop the confidence to complete tasks. Young kids always beg to help out with chores, like cooking, gardening, and cleaning. This is the right time for you to give them those responsibilities.

Let them help you unload the dishwasher. Allow them to try other small tasks. When they’ve completed it, they get to feel the success of doing something on their own.

You may think that it’s a waste of time because you’ll redo the chores to ensure they’re done correctly. However, this is such a valuable opportunity for your kids to gain confidence. They’ll develop the “I can do it” attitude when they grow up.

2. Chores allow for family bonding time

If your kids are accustomed to smartphones and those changing screen images, they tend to be wired to overstimulation. They’ll start to feel bored without them.

With the slow pace of household tasks, they begin to appreciate what slowing down means. Let them spread a peanut butter or cut sandwiches.

Hands-on experience promotes learning and building character. It’s useful in forming the foundation for their future selves. As you do tasks together, your relationships with your kids will be stronger. They’ll remember how they wash dishes, fix the car or walk their dogs with you.

As you take turns washing and drying the dishes, you’ll have a post-dinner conversation with your kids every evening. That bonding time is vital for them as they feel they have someone to turn to when they need one.

3. Chores teach the value of delayed gratification

Kids who can delay gratification are more likely to perform well when they grow up. Delayed gratification is vital for a larger goal. It can include saving money.

You can start teaching your kids that if they don’t do the laundry when it’s their turn, they don’t have a clean shirt to wear during an important event. They’ll be familiar with the pleasures of having to wait. Your kids will appreciate it when their goal is reached.

Then, they’ll start to internalize their ability to delay any gratification. As they grow up, they can defer gratification and end up becoming more socially competent. Because they have the potential to control their impulses, they become financially stable and healthy as adults.

So, allow your kids to take part in household chores to give them the chance to develop their coping skills. From there, they can control their impulses.

In the end, they can delay gratification. They’ll tend to master working first and playing later.

4. Chores build valuable skills

When you allow them to do house chores, you’re letting them see how the world works. For example, when you’re gardening and you let them plant a seed, they’ll know that a seed will become a tree.

This will help them develop patience, which is vital for today’s busy lifestyle. They become more motivated to apply those things to a more challenging task in the future.

As they participate in house chores, they pick up useful skills. They’ll realize that maintaining a car is easier than waiting for the car to break. They’re actively learning how to clean, make repairs, budget expenses, and several other tasks that are vital for an independent life when they become adults.

5. Chores teach children how to work well with others

It’s especially true if you have more than one child at home. Let them perform the chores together. Or you can let your child complete different tasks with you.

By assigning them to different roles, you’re teaching them to be flexible. One good example is to allow your kid to wash the dishes as you rinse or dry. Then, the next time, try switching roles.

6. Chores teach children ownership

When they help around the house, your children will have a sense of ownership. They’ll feel that they become an essential part of the house. It’s especially true if you show them how grateful you are of their help.

Showing appreciation for their assistance will make them more willing to help out in the future. Your children want to feel important. As you have assigned tasks or chores to them, they’re likely to contribute something to improve the well-being of the entire family.

That will then result in a boost in their self-confidence and self-esteem. Even if they feel that a chore is a burden, they feel happy when they complete it entirely.

7. Chores encourage self-discipline

It’s said that successful individuals are good at performing things that other people hate. That’s because they have self-discipline. When you allow your kids to do household chores even if they don’t want to, they’ll develop self-discipline, which is crucial in adult life.

Self-discipline is vital so they can perform well in various areas of their life. So, let them complete chores even if they don’t want to.

Conclusion

You may think that household chores are easier and quicker if you do them alone. But you’re taking away the opportunity for your kids to learn lifelong lessons.

When you allow them to do house chores, you’re sending them a message that everyone must pitch in with chores. They’ll realize that family is all about support and togetherness.

Once they start to understand that you need them to complete a task, they’ll feel that sense of responsibility. So, every time your kids ask to participate in your chores, think about the benefits of why doing house chores helps children become more successful in the future.

Hannah Tong is the founder of Omaby.com, a blog dedicated to providing accurate advice to mothers regarding childcare. She loves taking care of her kids and teaching them the right things. She is also enthusiastic and loves sharing her experiences to teach others about how to care for their families' health. Check the latest article (Child's development) here.