5 Reasons Why You Should Create Chores for your Child

Parents are divided on the age-long debate about whether children should do chores and gain responsibility or avoid doing...

Children
March 21, 2025

Parents are divided on the age-long debate about whether children should do chores and gain responsibility or avoid doing so to enjoy their childhood. Without going deep into the debate, there are various reasons why it can be beneficial to outline chores for your child. One strategic benefit of assigning chores to children is the development of time management and organization skills. They will learn to handle multiple tasks within a stipulated time frame, helping them to maintain stable mental well-being despite managing different commitments. Also, giving them chores will enable them to relate to what you do, allowing them to respect you more. Doing house chores and continuing with other parental and work duties is not easy. Engaging in house chores will make them empathize with you more, resulting in less bad or nonchalant behavior. Furthermore, they will develop self-reliance by doing things themselves. If they start doing these chores from a young age, it will be easy for them to continue doing their laundry and dishes when they get to college. Equally, when they grow up to become married, they won't become a liability to their partner. Parents who are intentional about proper guidance for children generally create chores for their children.

Feel free to learn more about why you should outline chores for your child:

To Improve Their Time Management and Organizational Skill

When you outline chores for your child, you should put the expected minutes per task. This will help them get used to time management, allowing them to develop their way of doing time-based work. Once they learn about time management, they will be able to work well with deadlines in school or extracurricular activities. Since many lessons begin at home and get reinforced outside, the time management skill will follow the same route, helping your child develop into someone with an impeccable mastery of time. Similarly, their organizational skill will help them face tasks with little anxiety. Due to their experience with time-based tasks, they can plan and fit the task into their schedule, leaving them with no fear of the deadline. All these will cause them to live an orderly life where they respect other people's time. Interestingly, they will gain a reputation for their lifestyle, leading to admiration from people. The admiration can help them cement stable interpersonal relationships as they grow older.

To Instill Respect for What You Do

Getting dressed while dressing your kid, going to work, coming home to continue house chores, and taking care of your kid's nutrition and hygiene aren't easy tasks. Without being involved in these tasks, children may not understand what it feels like and may unknowingly make life difficult. However, if you outline chores for your child and let them get involved in house chores, you will notice a drop in their dirtiness or stubbornness. Also, they will be less likely to indulge in risky behaviors because they understand how it will stress you so much to have an added problem to your responsibilities. Similarly, the empathy they build for you will also extend to other people. Since your child can now understand that people go through a lot behind the scenes, they will start to respect people more outside, making them peaceful and maintaining positive mental well-being. Their empathy will help them build relationships easily and maintain them for long periods.They will be able to understand their friends and offer solutions beyond their years simply because they have been able to understand your feelings while doing the chores.

To Teach Them Self-Reliance

By including your child in house chores, you will be trusting them to do what you usually do. This will instill a sense of self-reliance in them, especially if you aren't there to supervise them. This is a fantastic skill for kids; you should consider it when thinking of whether to create chores for your child. When your child develops self-reliance, they can set personal goals and actualize them without much worry. Due to the confidence gained from setting the house chore goal and completing it, real-life goals won't be so much different from them. Moreover, self-reliance allows them to be innovative and creative. They won't follow the crowd and pick the most popular decisions without thought. Instead, they will choose their well-thought ideas because they firmly believe in their mind. Their decision-making skills will also be fine-tuned to be independent. They will rarely depend on peers to make decisions, allowing them to bypass peer pressure easily. Your child will trust their personal judgment and insight.

A child standing behind clothes hanging outside

To Help Them Develop A Strong Work Ethic

You don't have to do much to instill a habit into your child. Childhood is a formative period, and your attempts at shaping them will work easily. So, you should outline chores for your child if you want them to develop strong work ethics for their future. Having strong work ethics will also teach them discipline because they will be able to stick to sound principles concerning work. No matter the situation of things around them, they will be able to maintain their discipline and achieve whatever they have set out to achieve. A strong work ethic will also help them with setting goals and achieving them despite the obstacles they may encounter. Ordinarily, a lazy person would get tired of obstacles and stop pushing to succeed. But, your child will continue to try different methods due to their strong work ethics. Strong work ethics will also help them excel in school, among peers, and in extracurricular activities. A strong work ethic is not common in children, so if your child has it, they are bound to excel among their peers.

To Teach Them Teamwork

By creating chores for your child, you will have them working with you and your partner to make the home a better place. Working together with them will be a great way to show them the marvels of teamwork. Once they understand how teamwork works, they will be able to fit into teams in school easily. They will also understand that being in a team helps with quicker problem-solving. Since multiple heads are better than one, it will be faster for a group to solve issues. Also, they will learn about the division of labor and how it reduces burnout. Teamwork reduces the burden of work on each team member, allowing them to do more than they would do if they were alone. Furthermore, there is the increased motivation that a team member will benefit from being in a group of like-minded individuals focused on a goal. Team members can motivate and derive mental strength from one another when the going gets tough.

Conclusion

Creating chores for your child shouldn't involve much thinking about the rationale. Doing it has several benefits, so you should endeavor if you care about providing guidance for your child. These benefits include improving your child's time management and organization skills, instilling respect for what you do in them, teaching them self-reliance, helping them to develop a strong work ethic, and teaching them teamwork.

Resources

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.parentcircle.com/benefits-and-importance-of-punctuality-and-time-management-for-children/article

https://mcc.gse.harvard.edu/resources-for-families/5-tips-cultivating-empathy

https://www.kofastudy.com/courses/jss1-civic-education-1st-term/lessons/self-reliance-week-6/topic/benefits-of-self-reliance-2/

https://www.momentumlife.co.nz/stories/why-kids-should-have-chores

https://www.valamis.com/hub/work-ethic

https://www.atlassian.com/blog/teamwork/the-importance-of-teamwork/amp

Author
Jennifer Luttman, LPC, ACS

I am a Licensed Professional Counselor, and owner of Overcomers Counseling. I'm dedicated to helping individuals find strength and healing through life’s challenges. With a deep understanding of mental health and years of professional experience, I specialize in fostering hope and resilience while equipping her clients with tools to thrive. Passionate about empowering others, she creates a safe, supportive space where everyone feels seen, valued, and capable of overcoming obstacles on their path to well-being.

Common Questions about Children

How can I help my child persist when things get tough?

Help your child by providing support and guidance, using positive language, highlighting the progress they have made, breaking down the challenge into smaller steps, and motivating them with positive affirmations.