Inside: Chores for 2 and 4 yr old kids with chores templates; to help you solve the issue of – how to do chores with your toddler! Solution – Involve them, so they learn important life skills, feel the pride of contributing and learn age appropriate chores.
The one issue parents ask me the most is — how do I keep my child engaged when I catch up on chores, or when I have to do the cleaning.
And the only way people seem to use to keep their child engaged while they clean is — screen time.
While screen time is a solution, it’s most definitely not the one that brings in pride and satisfaction, neither to the parent nor the child. It’s more like a limbo state, to just pass time, while more important stuff is being taken care of.
But it doesn’t have to be so; your child has the capability to be a part of that important stuff too!
So this is the other solution — getting your child involved in the chores while you do them yourself, the primary benefit of involving your child in chores is that they understand the process a house is kept clean and organized.
I came to this conclusion of asking my kids to help do the chores because I could not engage my kids with screens because it did not go well with me and secondly because – they seemed to be pretending to clean around me when I did the work, which actually created more issues than cleaning.
Here’s the thing about pretend play, in a child’s mind it’s real life. So while they were pretending and trying to wipe and clean, they were actually doing a great job in their minds while in reality, it was in wrong places and with techniques.
So all I had to do was — give them a direction in how to clean!
I also must say — there is a learning curve for both parents and kids; when trying to get your children to help with chores.
Because they try to go ahead of you a lot, and you take the time to learn what they can and can’t do.
So initially it may seem like this is actually creating more work for you.
But as everyone gets comfortable with the expectations, boundaries, and routines; kids are actually a great help with the chores!
These are the things I ask help for from my 2 yr old and 3.5 yr old, we started our chores routine 6 months ago so they were 18 months and 3 yrs respectively!
I didn’t introduce all of them together; all these chores are built
Getting help is usually not a struggle if you introduce work to the slowly. Both of them help happily, probably because there is a sense of pride involved, and kids always want to do things that adults do.
I got to know how much my 18 months old daughter loves helping with chores, when Montessorisori teacher told me, she actually chooses to help the teacher with chores during circle time.
On the flip side getting my 3 yr old to do his self-care is a struggle for us, but I think it’s mostly because my little one does not do her self care activities and I do it for her, so my older one wants me to do it for him too. That is a constant struggle, but chores are never a struggle.
A huge bonus about getting help with chores is — it’s a perfect way to introduce and use their manners constantly without any reminders because you constantly keep saying please and thank you to them, they learn it very smoothly and naturally!
Like this Post? Join Our Community!
Join 2,500+ Parents who receive my weekly-ish parenting resources, ideas, stories, inspiration and more...