My Three-year old has known how to use a vacuum since she was one and a half. She helps me do laundry, clean the kitchen and fold towels. She was taught at a very young age that she needs to clean up after herself. I can ask this girl if she wants to help me clean and her answer will always be, “YEAH! I love cleanin!” She does more than what other kids her age would do. (She does have an OCD mama, who loves a clean house.) I’ve been told, “Why do you have your kids clean so young?” and, “They are just kids, let them have fun.” Well, I will tell you why my three-year old already cleans up after herself and cleans with me. ONE: I don’t want her thinking it’s okay to trash anything without there being consequences. TWO: I also don’t want her thinking it’s okay to destroying other people’s houses either and things. And THREE: From day ONE, you are teaching your kids. You are teaching them what love is, what caring is. Then they learn what respect is and how to be independent and responsibility is. It’s just ridiculous to not teach them something while they are young and their brains are sponges. Makes no sense. 

What everyone does in their own house is not my business, but think about it this way… What favors are you really doing for your kids if you aren’t teaching them how to be more self-reliant, respectful and responsible? Absolutely NOTHING. You are ;ruining them. I’m not saying give them full on chores every single day. None of my kids have daily chores. They just know that if they make a mess, they clean it up. I am preparing my kids for when they go to other’s houses, school, college and just adult life. It’s just common sense to teach your kids this really. There’s just no excuse for it really. Them not doing it right is not an excuse… How else are they going to learn to do it right if they don’t do it wrong first? 

A lot of parents just don’t even know where to start with assigning chore tasks to what ages, so I have created a guideline to help y’all out. 

1. Chores help kids learn responsibility and self-reliance

Assigning your kids tasks around the house teaches them responsibility. Chores that personally affect your kids such as cleaning up their room/toys and doing/helping with their laundry can help them become more self-reliant at the same time. It also gives them something to be proud of themselves for-that they are mature enough to take care of themselves.

2. Respect 

You don’t fully know how much your parents do for you until you’ve left home and are now doing everything for yourself. Giving kids chores to do will  reinforce respect for the ones that care for them. They will become more aware of the messes they make if they are assigned to cleaning tasks around the house and have more respect for the work that goes into maintaining a household. 

3. Chores help teach life skills

your kids won’t be young forever. In just a blink of an eye, they grow so fast. Eventually, they will be out on their own or in situations where they have to know how to do things for themselves. It’s your job as a parent to provide them with that knowledge of how to take care of themselves. They are going to learn to do that if you always do everything for them. When they are out on their own, they will need to have learned how to do their laundry, cook, and just how to maintain a home. Not all of this is taught in school, therefore it is your job. You aren’t doing your kids any favors if they are 10 years old and you’re cleaning up their toys, or doing their laundry. You are then at that point teaching them that they will have someone to do these things for them. you are suppose to teach them how to be an essential part of society.

4. There are consequences

This is important. Like super important. Think about this. You teach your kids right from wrong. You teach them that they need to take responsibility for themselves. These life skills are going to be used for the rest of their lives! They need to know that there are consequences for everything they do. Obviously the consequences differ in different situations. Action: They don’t take care of their toys/stuff. Consequence: Their toys/stuff get broken or lost. Action: They don’t clean up after themselves at someone else’s house. Consequence: They may not be wanted over there anymore because they have no respect. The action and consequence thing can fall on the parents as well. Action: Not teaching your kids to clean up after themselves and to take care of their toys. Consequence: They more than likely won’t do it at someone else’s house and that’s pretty embarrassing for you as a parent. Action: They aren’t taught basic life skills growing up. Consequence: You might be the one doing their laundry, and making their bed and catering to them after they should of already moved out. 

5. Help improve time management skill’s

Chores can help older kids and teenagers build good habits early. It teaches them to set priorities and manage time. Think about it this way, if they were taught at a young age to just pick up after themselves instead of leaving it and contributing to the mess, then they would save time and not have to handle an even bigger mess later. 

There are chore tasks that are appropriate for each age group. My daughter is three and has known how to use a full sized vacuum since she was one and a half though. 

There should be no reason at all why your kids can’t help clean up, especially if they’ve contributed to the mess. If you continue to do everything for them, they will never learn. This is a rule in my house. My girls know that they have to clean up their room when they are done playing in there, as well as other kids that play in there, they have to clean up their own mess too, or there’s no playing.