When I worked in an office full time, the kids and I could be out of the house about 10 hours each day 5 days a week. So it was never a question if the kids should do housework, for my own sanity they had to. I am not talking anything along the lines of child slave labour, contra to my children’s belief, but they both had to help with things they could manage.
Now that I work from home I have wondered if I should still expect them to help around the house. I am sure the same question has floated through the children’s heads too. They probably think my day consists of about 5 minutes of work and the rest of the time I am having a party. I can’t deny I do take full advantage of the delights of shopping in the middle of the day and I can confirm I have gone outside to put the washing out and ‘forgot’ to go back inside to work when the sun was shining. But I do work long hours, the children don’t notice the days when I am at my desk at 7 and don’t crawl up the stairs to bed till the wee small hours.
My argument for them not helping around the house is rather short and limited. They are children; they should be enjoying what precious childhood they have.
Schoolwork is also important and they need to spend quality time doing their homework.
My argument for them helping around the house is that they make more than their fair share of mess so need to teach them they have to pick it up too.
Future friends, husbands, wives etc will thank me for installing some basic housetraining into my children.
It’s all part of the nature of being a parent. You teach them how to walk, then how to run, you teach them to share and play nicely. It’s only natural to go and teach them things from how to keep things tidy to the basics of a washing machine.
Things do differ from home to home with different situations and children’s ages, but do you think children should help around the home?
yes and no. I remember my own mum saying that once i was an adult there would be plenty of time for me to be doing cooking/cleaning etc and so i should enjoy not having that pressure whilst i lived with her. i still did a few things but overall she had jurisdiction in the house. my kids are small (8 and 5) and so there chores are limited but they are expected to pick up after themselves.
unfortunately in this age of consumerism and $2 shops, they see every chore as an opportunity to make money to spend on more plastic stuff.
I agree that working from home is a double edged sword. sometimes i think it would be less stressful to be out 10 hours a day – there’d certainly be less mess to clean up too!