Kids chores?

Yes or no and if yes how young and what did you start them with?

Absolutely yes.

My 7 and 9 year old clean up the house (stuff laying around), pick up the dog poop, empty the dishwasher, feed the dog, and DO LAUNDRY.

My wife even has photographic evidence of my son (7) cleaning his bathroom toilet.

My 17 year old step daughter has never had chores. The wife admits to spoiling her rotten. Our 3 year old most definitely will. We get her to help pick up her messes and she wants to help clean up around the house and help with dishes and sweeping. I'll try to continue to make it fun for her, but you know...

My kid is two. He has to pick up his toys, clean up after himself (with our help obviously) and whatever else I get him to do.

Mow the lawn. Shovel the walks, carry water at camp. Any other request.

Yes, and as soon as they understand the language.

Start with clean their room and work up from there. My eldest boy mows the grass, takes care of the trash and helps with the dishes. The youngest rakes, mops, sweeps, does dishes and mows the yard with supervision. Even the 21yo daughter has chores when she is home from college. Everyone gets to help keep the house running.

Almost forgot the most important chore-get mom and dad a beer

Absolutely.

Start small with things that involves them, and move on from there. Be there to help them at first, but resist the temptation to do it for them.

It's important for their self-esteem, and you en-power them this way. Just make sure to be there if they request some help.

My kids cut grass, rake, clean, shovel snow, trash, whatever. They do it grudgingly but they do it.

We made our kids do all kinds of chores from the early days.

Dave Ramsey suggests paying your kids to do extra work; not just the regular work/chores but jobs that are the normal weekly chores. This way they learn early the relationship between work and earning money. More work = more money.

I learned the lesson in 5th grade when I took on a paper route and cut lawns for $4/lawn.

My kids always had regular chores, and always received an allowance. They understood that the two were related.

I didn't have to do too many chores, but I always had to / wanted to help when there was a project to be done. I was assigned to take out the trash starting in maybe 3 rd grade, so call that 6 or so. At 9 or 10 it was my job to push mow the lawn, but that came with a small stipend. I was expected to keep my crap in my room and not spread over the house. My room didn't have to be picked up but it sure as hell didn't happen unless I did it, at least not in my living memory.

I agree chores are important. Our girls usually set and clear the table, gather laundry, empty the dishwasher, etc. I will wash and fold clothes but they take them up and pit them away or it doesn't happen. It only took a few times of Dad walking in on them getting dressed in the laundry room to learn that's really a job that should happen in your own bedroom.

I do pay them a little for special jobs like raking leaves, etc.

Oh, and I also spent 4-8 hours a week helping dad take care of the family business, with no official pay. I saw what that business did for the family, though, and never really complained about that.

Chores for an allowance and semi-voluntary jobs for extra money. Sort and fold laundry, clean parts of the bathroom, and clean rooms for allowance. Scoop poop and seasonal yard stuff for jobs. This is our 8 and 7 year old. We tie it to major purchases and plot the earnings on money thermometers on the dining room wall. Our near 3 year old has her own set of less challenging stuff. They bought their own Nintendo DS' s and tablets this way.

My 7 year old is in charge of getting the table ready for dinner and bringing all the laundry downstairs on laundry day. He also gets to pick up all the toys every sunday night. 5 year old will pick up the dishes after dinner and bring them so that me or my wife put them in the dishwasher. He also shares the laundry chore with his brother. 2 year old is still safe.

Zomby Woof wrote: My kids always had regular chores, and always received an allowance. They understood that the two were related.

This ^ - wanna get paid - do your work. Its a life lesson.

Yup. Since they were old enough to take something out, they were expected to put it back. We don't call them chores though. We don't have a set term, usually we use 'job'. The kids know that a house runs on teamwork, and we are all members of the team. When they say they don't feel like taking the garbage out, or unloading the dishwasher, we remind them that I didn't feel like going to work, or mom didn't feel like making dinner. But we all pitch in to keep the house running.

It's not a chore to help take care of the house you live in.

Your mother is not your servant.

It's never too early.

2-year-old knows to clean up one activity (puzzle, coloring, whatever) before starting the next. Bonus points (a sticker) for going above and beyond.

SVreX wrote: It's not a chore to help take care of the house you live in. Your mother is not your servant. It's never too early.

Ding - - Ding - - Ding !!!!!

Absofrikkinlutely.

The alternative is turning an 18 year old out into the world with no sense of responsibility, no understanding that everything is NOT free and facing a very uphill road.

Dan

We were raised to do anything and everything if needed and asked. Wake up at 6AM and clean the house E36 M3ters on a Saturday morning before watching cartoons/eating breakfast? Done. My parents were pretty busy(mom always had two jobs, dad went to school and worked an hour away), so we did what we could to keep the house up.

When I was a kid back in the dark ages, there was no allowance or extra payments for doing chores, we were just expected to do our part. At the time I didn't like it very much, but I wonder if it's maybe a better system...if kids expect they are to be paid for everything, I don't know if it's teaching them the right thing.

We give our kids allowance, but it's not tied to their responsibilities around the house. They get an allowance AS a responsibility. If they fail to help out around the house there will be other consequences. They do know that later in live, taking care of responsibilities will have a financial consequence in the workplace. ....though you'd never know it by the performance of some of my co-workers

we got an allowance … we also had chores to do … the allowance wasn't dependent on doing our chores …. not doing those chores was cause for disappointment expressed by our parents … not a good thing

In reply to wbjones:

So how many of these do you still have?