Parenting In Focus: Making chores fun

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, August 23, 2023

We all want our children to learn to help around the house. This is good training for when they become adults. You want your children to know how to keep a house clean and orderly, maintain upkeep on a car and keep clothes looking good.

Teaching chores must include a positive view of these tasks, so don’t make chores sound awful or a lot of work. Instead, make chores fun.

Try making chores a game. If you have two children, have them race to see who can get the task done first. Have a time for the two of them to compete on who can get their beds made first or who can get the toys put away first … and even have a prize for the quickest, though be sure you have second prize the other child can “win.”

Buy a timer so your child compete with herself. Keep track of how long it takes for her to put the dishes in the dishwasher or to take out the trash and come back in. See if your child can beat her last night’s time. Make sure you talk about being careful with the dishes along with how fast she is. Children love games and ones with a parent can be fun. You will undoubtedly have more fun playing a game together than bugging him to complete his job of cleaning his room.

Timers or prizes work on school tasks, too. Take a look at what the assignment is and figure out how long it should take. Ask your child how long it will take to complete. Time it and see who is right. Give him a big hug regardless if he was right or wrong.

As with other things you want your child to do, talk about it with someone else while he can hear what you are saying. Let him hear how proud you are of the good job he is doing. When he feels good about what he has done, he is more likely to be willing to do it again.

When you can make a job or a chore a positive experience you will find your child more willing to do it. Positive experience is what you are seeking to increase. If you find yourself being more negative than positive with your child, you need to make an effort to change things in your home.

You want your child to view life in a positive way.

Cynthia Martin is the founder of the First Teacher program and former executive director of Parenting Matters Foundation, which published newsletters for parents, caregivers and grandparents.