Children and household, that these two words do not always go well together is clear! Unless you mean a Jan Steen household. You probably know it, chocolate spread fingers on the wall, breadcrumbs between the couch and a table covered with paint and waterproof marker. So that! Do you let your children help with the household to limit the chaos? And do you use a to-do list for your kids? Or do you feel free to let them smear everything and do you prefer to clean it up yourself?
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What age is acceptable for children to help with the household? The children are almost 7 and 5 years old here and could certainly use some responsibility. We are of course not talking about slave labour, but simply combining children and household in a normal healthy way. Just roll up your sleeves every now and then.
Taking a breakfast plate and drinking cup to the counter, tidying up one's own room, putting dirty laundry in the laundry basket, for example. But also cleaning the floor with the vacuum cleaner or steam cleaner, cleaning the bathroom and more of that kind of household chores. I'm sure it doesn't make children worse, but learns what their responsibilities are. The only question is, how far will you go with this?
It is not unknown to me that it does not always go smoothly. I sometimes have to beg 20 times for them to clean up their own messy mess, put their dirty laundry in the laundry basket and put the breakfast plate in the dishwasher but… perseverance wins! Even though it is sometimes difficult 😉 .
Of course it depends on the age whether or not they can contribute to the household. For example, from the age of 3 you can introduce the children to a dustpan and dustpan or small broom. They often find it very interesting. Even if they don't do it the way you want them to, they do learn from it. From 4 or 5 years old they like to do an assignment and you can certainly encourage them to take responsibility.
Older children can then help more with the larger jobs, such as:
Give children a task, they grow from that. After all, they can do it at school and they often think it's great to be able to help the teacher. How nice is it if they not only take responsibility at school, but can also show what they can do at home. You can make a to-do list schedule where they can sticker or cross out their task, for example, that has a positive and enormously stimulating effect.
