Teaching Your Kids To Be Helpful Parents Families.com

We can make our jobs as parents a lot easier if we teach our kids to be helpful. Kids need to learn from an early age that all members of the family must play a role in keeping the household functioning properly. Most little ones are eager to help so this makes your job a lot easier. It’s when kids get older that we sometimes have to keep on them to do their chores.

In their book, 365 Ways to Help Your Children Grow, authors Shelia Ellison and Barbara Barnett, offer some tips on how parents can teach their kids to be helpful.

The standard chore chart works well. Each member knows what is expected of them and it eliminates parents having to tell their children what to do each day. Chore charts are pretty simple to make. You can write the days of the week in a column and then across the top write each child’s name. Then under each child’s name write their assigned chore (or draw a picture for the younger kids). You can also have your kids check off the chore once it is done.

A neat idea is to write up a help wanted ad. You simply write up a description of the job that needs to be done — looking for someone strong to help move some books, for example. Then have your kids “apply” for the job. You can also require that each child must apply for a certain number of ads each week.

Finally, here’s a way to encourage your kids to clean up their mess before it becomes an even bigger mess. As you walk around the house pick up things that your kids didn’t put away. Then at the end of the week hold an auction and give the person the object belongs to the first chance to buy it back. The payment for the item does not have to be in actual money but in time spent doing chores, helping siblings, etc. If the person who the object belongs to does not want it, allow someone else to bid on it or give it to charity.

Teaching your kids to be helpful around the house does not have to be drudgery. Make it fun and interesting and they will more than likely want to help.