Out of the Cradle: Let Children Work

You might think you are being protective but preventing your children from doing regular things like adults can be counterproductive and disabling for them

Parents are always ready to provide their children with all sorts of comforts and assistance. They often go out of their way to meet the requirements of their children. Most times parents are overprotective and assume that children will not be able to handle any tasks.

The truth is that children are capable of successfully taking on small and moderate level responsibilities. In fact assigning trivial day-to-day tasks to children only enhances their self-confidence. Also, children learn the skills to manage their own as well as numerous household tasks in an efficient manner.

Researchers have observed an interesting relationship in this context. According to their analysis, adults who had helped their parents in managing household tasks from an early age lead a better family life than adults who didn’t assist their parents during childhood.

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These are some ways in which you can involve your child in small household chores:

• Age doesn’t matter – Assign household chores. Start early to inculcate the habit of doing household tasks. Even a preschooler can be taught to keep her utensils in the kitchen after she has had her meals. As the child grows up allow her to do things that suit her age. For example, you can ask your teenage daughter to daily water the plants in your garden. 

• Responsibility – Assigning small tasks can make your child more responsible. When you let your child do household chores, it infuses a sense of responsibility in her. As a result, your child will not take lightly the tasks assigned to her and it will sow the seeds of self-reliance in her life from childhood.

• Respect for work – Your child learns to respect the importance of work. Doing household tasks provides an invaluable learning to your child. They start to respect the hard work that goes into completing these tasks. In short, your child will respect work in her life.

• Family bond – Household tasks are a way of strengthening the family bond. The habit of doing small tasks also teaches the youngster to think of all family members in terms of a unit when it comes to contributing to the household. Moreover your youngster and you get additional time to spend in each ''others'' company.

• Ask for help – Involve your child in different household activities. Don’t hesitate to ask help from your child. Take their help whenever the occasion demands. For example, your child can help you with your cooking. You can ask her to fetch articles from the refrigerator whenever you are busy in the kitchen. She can count the number of clothes that need to be sent for ironing. She can even calculate the cost. She can fill water bottles and buckets, prepare the table before meals and so on.

• Decision making – Encourage the decision making ability of your child. It is a healthy practice to involve your child in the decision making process from an early age. For example, you can ask her what she would like to eat for dinner in a restaurant or a fast food joint. Let her decide where she would like to do or go for an outing on the weekend. Respecting her decisions will lay the foundation for a balanced personality.

• Time management – Doing household chores imparts time management skills. Effective management of time is another positive spin off of assigning household chores to your child. As she does these tasks, your child will be acquainted with the importance of time. Slowly she will gain mastery over the assigned tasks and also save time. As she grows up, she will use this valuable insight into managing lengthy and complex tasks.

Parents who are over-protective often fail to impart the essential values of life to their kids. Don’t be such a parent. Your child has more potential in her than you give her credit for.

Sanjay and Babita are proud of their six year old son Pravesh. Sanjay says, “Pravesh enjoys all the duties we assign to him. Babita once came down with fever while I was at work. Surprisingly, Pravesh came through for us. He found the thermometer and brought it to his mother. Her temperature had touched 102 F. Then he fetched the box of medicines. We had not taught him all this. Pravesh learnt them just by observing us.’

This incidence only shows that children love to help. It is a misjudgement on the part of parents to not allow them to be proactive in family and household matters.