Household Chores

Lifestyle Parenting, Household Affairs and Cuisine corner
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When is it appropriate to start having your kids help around the house? At what age I mean…
What sorts of responsibilities did you have and how will you carry that on or change that with your own kids?

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Re: Household Chores

Ideally, one should start with 5 years and encourage the kid to start doing his/her chores .. like eating, changing clothes and using toilet. Then comes taking bath and cleaning the room including making the bed. I say that kid should be 10 years plus to give him/her general household responsibilities, that could be helping mom and dad with laundry and vacuuming stuff.

Did we pass the above as parents? Heck no.

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As soon as they can walk. Let them help you when you are cleaning up. That's what I did. They love being involved and helping. Now he wants to help with everything from carrying groceries to vacuuming to gardening. I hope he stays this way.

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I agree wuåith mehn... Dont think ure kid is handicapped...which a lot of parents do. Ot on purpose but by treating their kids as babieseven when they are capable of completing a simple task...

Preschool teachers here say the worst parentsare desis... I was super shocked cuz we spend so much time on our kids... But they say when it comes the time to put on clothes. Eat.. Clean up... Desi kids are far behind comapred to their danish classmates.

And i saw this when midget staryed dayvare at 2....there was a 1 yr old trying to dress herself after using the loo... I nearly fainted... An 8 month old was eating with a spoon!

Her advice was... Start giving them independance to do their own things as soon as they can walk... Eating as soon as they can sit up.

Ive seen a major major move fwd in midget.. Ever since he jlined daycare... Learned to dress himself... Load his plate in the dishwasher... Put his clothes light vs dark in sept lau dry baskets, make his bed..help lay the table and then clean it up... Some he learned at daycare and the rest we did at home.

Mashallah mashallah mashallah... All before he turned 3.

Just give them a chance and watch them grow. (words of midget's teacher )

So nowat 3 his chores if we can call them that are

Make bed

Tell mommy when his laundry basket is full. Help mom load the machine with his clothing.

Help mom dust and clean

Help carry trash out ( we recycle so he carries out milk cartons).

Lay the table and help clear it

Put away his own laundry and genie's.

Put everyone's shoes in place at the end of the day (if they are out of place..he loves doing it...sometimes messes em up just to put them in order)

He is itching to iron his own clothes but im not that zalim :D

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agree with mehnaz and khawateen.. as soon as they are capable of doing it, let them.

Us desis try to keep our kids as kids (especially boys) for as long as possible. God forbid, the kid washes dishes.. yeh tho shadi ke baad ka kaam hai.. or haye mera beta, dishes dho raha hai.. like what on earth?!

munchkin has been helping around the house as long as i can remember. I figured, she's not going to ever let me do things on my own, so why not get her involved instead... from sorting out the laundry, to unloading the dishwasher.. fixing the bed, putting away clothes...

dont treat it as a chore, but something fun and grown up and they will love it..

munchkin washes veggies and things for me.. and even sometimes small plastic utensils.. I let her put her stool in the kitchen, so she can watch what im doing and get involved... and she loves it. Also, setting the table.

She's been eating by herself for a long time but got better at it when she started daycare at 18 months. Sometimes, I do feed her myself at home, only due to the frustration of time...

Daycare and school helps tremendously... its sooo good with getting them to be independant and self sufficient. Its us parents who behave like "haye mera bacha..." and ruin everything they learn.... we definately are to blame in ruining our kids good habits or not allowing good habits to materialise

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I wish my mum had let me and my sibling help around the house. My dad loves cooking and would say to us to come in the kitchen and learn from him, but mum said that we're going to do it for the rest of our married lives anyway, and wouldn't let us do it. When i moved out after marriage, i had such a hard time, as i didn't know how to cook, clean or look after any household issues.

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ive heard mothers proudly boast how they didnt let their daughters cook or clean before getting married... and they focused entirely on studies and educaiton.

I dont understand how doing a bit of chores around the house is going to impact on ones education...

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Re: Household Chores

Agreed!! I don't see how one has anything to do with the other. My mom used to instruct my sisters and I over the phone on how to bhoonafy the salan or make the chanwal. We had regular chores like laundry, dusting etc.

I also give my boys age appropriate chores. They are responsible for putting away their own clothes as soon as I fold the laundry, my almost 9 yr old vacuums and dusts...the twins can make their own bed. As they get older we will add taking out the trash, loading the dishwasher etc.

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my mum worked a lot of the saturdays, during my teens, so we would take over the cleaning process while she was not at home and have everythign sparkly clean... i recall my siblings moaning about how i was more scary than mum on saturdays :D I reckon I did a briliant job...

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I agree with those who say that as early as possible.
My 2 yo loves to copy me.If I am dusting she will grab anything and do it (sometimes a kitchen towel or even drag her blanket from the crib).When I am folding laundry she asks for 'socks' and then puts them in the bin on the bottom of the closet.When I am vacuuming,she does that too with a toy of hers which has a long handle with a rolling drum.She helps me throw out any paper or tissues in the garbage.Then she feels so happy when I tell her' Good job',she claps for herself.
Tonight she had made a mess of all her toys and books and blocks and I told her to clean up.Rather than putting the stuff away in the storage bins,she brought out her toy she pretends to be a vacuum and started to clean up and made the sound 'brrrrrrrr' (that is the way the vacuum works,acc to her).Well atleast she is learning how to clean up.Now the only thing is that I hope she still remembers to be this helpful and thoughtful in the years to come...!

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thanks for all the great replies…I agree with you all on getting them started as soon as they are able…gets them used to the whole routine and makes life a lot easier.

Noor has been helping me since she could sit on her own…yeah…I would put her on the counter top and she would peel veggies for me…I remember her biting into a few onions and lemons and the faces that she would make… :cb:

but I think what I am asking about here is the assignment of chores that the kids are responsible for on their own…not something that I would be supervising or helping with.

for example…I’m starting to implement the rule that Noor is the one that has to do the dishes…she already sets and clears the table but now that I’ve seen her wash the dishes I think that this is something that can be her duty on a routine basis…

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Such meanie parents ALL of you :teary2:

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Muzna...what else does she do ...just so we are not repeating chores she is already doing.

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We make our monkey do everything she is able to. For instance, when she's done playing with her toys, she has to put them away. Before moving on from a big messy toy (like jigsaw puzzles or play dough), she has to put it all away and clean up. She has to set the table with us. She has to go to the bathroom by herself, unless she poops then we help. She gets dressed by herself. When I'm feeling lazy and need something, I ask her and she gets it for me. She pours her own water/milk/cereal now.

Essentially, get them going as early as possible. In the beginning, it will take LONGER for them to "help" you than it would for you to do it yourself, but the point is not garnering efficiencies in time, the point is to teach them to take care of themselves. Ultimately, they become independent and you DO save time because they can do stuff on their own.

For me one of the most frustrating things was letting her put on her winter coat, zip it up, put on her gloves, hat, scarf, shoes. She took SO LONG, but in the end, it was worth it, because now it saves time.

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great advice aahmed…it definitely is easy to fall into the “let me help you so it will go faster” trap…

khawa…she does all the things that are related to herself (i.e. personal care, tidy up, homework, etc.) but she also helps with sorting and doing laundry, including folding and putting away when done.

she has started to cook…already can make a salan and is not bad at small rotis…but this is not an everyday thing.

my nieces have had it easy…their parents went soft on them…my own life was very different cuz I was cooking the family dinner by the time I was ten and I am told that this is not normal :smack: …so I’m looking for some benchmarks…

I was thinking maybe get her started on cleaning the bathroom…she already helps with vacuuming and sweeping the kitchen floor.

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I am learning so much from this thread. Jr. brings his own shoes and socks. But I don't let him do much else coz I can do it faster (I do have him help me pick up the toys but for the most part I am doing it )

So if I want Jr. to pick up his toys and tell him to do it, he doesn't do it. How do I get him to do it on his own. When I am putting his toys away he wants to help me and he does.

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Re: Household Chores

I started the same way. I will tell him that we are going to do it together and there was a song at his daycare that I learnt as well and we would sing the 'cleanup' song and put away his toys.
He will do it if he finds it enjoyable. Make it into a game.
I also used to race him, like who will put things away faster. For instance I would tell him he has to put away his toys and I will do something else and we ll see who wins.
Eventually he will get into the habit of it.

I know about doing it faster thought. Most of the mornings I am in a hurry, so I do sometime put his socks on myself.

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My almost 9 yr old mowed the lawn for the first time last weekend :hayaa:

I’ve never seen my husband look so happy and proud…lol! Poor kid has no clue what’s in store for him :faizy:

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Yup, i had the same experience (glad someone is able to admit it!)…now they realize that that approach doesn’t really work, but oh well, too late..lol
and on the flip side, my mom never involved my brother in cooking and cleaning…(cz..u know…:fatee: he’s a boy!) but now he keeps a pretty good home and cooks too…so…yeah.

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I was gonna say the same thing as sarad… make into a game. They love that.

Everytime I need munchkin to do something that she is not willingly doing, we make it into a game.. “lets see who wins… lets so who is a superstar… i can beat you up the stairs…” Anything :slight_smile:

I also struggle with the , I can do it faster syndrome and end up doing things myself sometimes.. I think most parents go through that (here’s hoping) :halo: