Teach the Kids Teamwork through Helping in the Home

Whether you have a small or large family, it only takes two to three children to have your own team at home, and by allowing them to do their own fair share of the household chores is a good way to teach them about teamwork. Encourage and convince your kids to just get the job done, whatever the chore is. So many parents have to plead, cajole, or even bribe their children to help out in the house and yet it is the mum or dad who actually still finds themselves mowing the lawn, vacuuming the hall, washing the dirty dishes, and emptying the rubbish bins.

When interviewed, parents always seem to come up with the similar type of question, "how can we make our children do the chores around the house?" or more importantly, "how do we make them do it without being reminded?"  What is vital to understand is that household chores are the personal building blocks of children and a way to help them flourish in life.  Why?  Because they help teach the kids transferable and basic skills, and to add to this, it also gives them a greater sense of personal responsibility and helps them realize the importance of duty.

I believe that ensuring the chores get done by the children  is more achievable, if we as parents motivate and promote the activities by saying that they are a team effort and their household is a base, and each one of the children is a game player. Thus, the action of one affects everyone and so does one's inactions.  A good example of this is failure to clean the dishes means that everyone has to eat off dirty plates and cutlery.  Another example is failure to clean the bathroom results in everyone taking a shower or having to have a bath on grimy surfaces. Failure to clean out the rubbish bin in the kitchen means that people have to live in an environment that pongs.

Therefore, delegating household jobs to the children not only keeps the house running smoothly, but also it aids the children's personal growth and development as citizens such as:

1. Parents allow their children to feel important by giving them a stake-hold in the management of the family home, and by letting them know that they need an extra pair of hands.
2. Parents are able to spend more quality time interacting and talking by teaching the children how to do the laundry, clean, cook, how to manage a budget, and what to buy for the weekly grocery shopping. Following this they can allow their children to do these things for themselves and in doing so they are bonding with the children plus educating them how to do things together.
3. It is paramount that parents designate the chores appropriately depending on the child's ability, skills, and age. If the child is young, giving them something menial, whilst small will help foster the idea that he or she is important and so an important part of the 'team'.
4. The kitchen is the heart of the home and a majority of the chores can be found in there. A schedule can be created and fixed upon the wall of the refrigerator indicating who would do the dishes, the cooking, the vacuuming, walking the dog, and setting the table.
5. I feel that laundry is important and the kids should be taught how to do it at an early age. When you train your child to put the dirty clothes in to the laundry basket, you are already teaching them the basic laundry rule. As the children get older you can take the involvement further by asking for the kids’s assistance folding and putting away clothes. By the time they are late teens, I believe that they must already be able to work and operate the dryer and washing machine. They can do their own stuff before going to college.

 However, one must know that teaching the children how to do the household jobs, and motivating them to do it, are two separate challenges parents face. So ' how do I motivate them I hear you say?'  well, here are four ways in which you can do exactly that:

• Parents need to be good role models for their kids by doing some of the chores themselves.
• A positive and co-operative spirit and culture must be cultivated inside the home, a sort of help each other out atmosphere.
• Each child must be made to feel important and worthwhile so a nurturing relationship above all is vital to create.
• Parents need to think of chores as an opportunity to teach the children values and the importance of being responsible.

Children need different levels of support and help at different ages. Parents must learn how to work side by side with their young children. The older they get, the less the parents must be hovering beside them.

Some households reward children doing chores by giving them an allowance. This should not be connected to fundamental chores. Chores and allowance must be separated. By accomplishing chores, the child must feel that the action he completed is fulfillment itself. He does not need to get money to feel compensated. An important point to remember is that parents must try to instill in their children why chores must be done. To add flavor to it, they can give a pep talk on how they, as a family, are one team and there’s pleasure in work when everyone is responsible and productive. 

 Whilst on a hypnosis seminar in Las Vegas I met a rather charming and inspiring woman named Lisa McLellan, who I soon discovered was a champion of successful parenting and child care. We all know that it can be a delight and also complicated job to bring up kids and it is good to know that when the going gets tough you are not alone. Lisa McLellan brings you simple, practical and easy techniques for baby-sitting and parenting to get your family lives again, she will make parenting feel more sunny!

David Power
Expert in Hypnosis, Success Thinking and Practical Parenting