training your young child to do housework - Page 2

[meemee]

Originally Posted by ScarletBegonias

maybe my expectations are too high, but it kills me to live in a world where a 3 year old child in africa is caring for a younger sibling and fetching water, cooking and working, when in our culture children play all day, speak rudely and do not appreciate ANYTHING. i do not want my children growing up how the typical american child is raised. i do not believe it is healthy or natural. honestly, it disgusts me. i don't mean to offend. it's only how *i* feel.

mama be v. careful when you pick up pieces from other cultures and just look at these pieces without considering their whole life.

just because those children are doing those does that mean we have to do the same?

those kids miss out sooo much on childhood. they have to grow up sooo fast. given a chance they would much rather be our typical kid.

so do our children have to be child 'labours' just coz other countries dont have the option.

all the things you see bad here are because of a reason. there is no extended family to help our children. speak rudely? all children do that - from any culture. that is what they DO. but just coz they are not is not a happy thing. that means they have been disciplined v. strongly and they HAVE to. they do not have a choice.

you try to create a balance. my 7 year old does chores. she makes bfast and puts her things away. its not coz i commanded her. i never asked her to help me. but she does it because she wants to help not coz she has to. i dont think she did it willingly till she was 5 or 6. before that it was a game. she may pick up a few pieces or she may not. i didnt insist. however she loved doing chores. and she loved doing them at my friends houses.

i love that my dd at 3 doesnt HAVE to do chores. i love that she is rude and voicing her opinions. i love that she is free and feels comfortable enough to misbehave and throw a tantrum.

she is a really good kid. i think because she has had the opportunity to express. good and bad. i am so grateful she has had a childhood. and not had it taken away like kids who have to earn a living to support the family.

[thefreckledmama]

My youngest is 26 months, and is all about housework. I simply started with her following me around while I would do chores, and slowly started including her in whatever I was doing. I didn't do as well with my older two, I would run around doing things why they were playing, so they weren't watching and learning to do things by copying me the way my youngest does...and now chores with them are a lot more difficult than they would be had I not been so lax about including them at a young age.

My toddler's favorite things to do are: loading/switching the laundry, rinsing dishes, and picking up anything that has a specific place it goes. She's also excellent about putting dirty dishes in the sick, dirty clothes in the hamper, etc. True, it does make the tasks take longer when she's "helping", but she's learning that not only do chores need to be done, but HOW they are done...not to mention the quality time we have together singing or laughing while we do it.

The best part is, there are already things I can direct her to do, and she's able to do them on her own...and it makes her feel accomplished and "wike a bwig girl!"

[catnip]

My daughter is 5. She loves to help cook, sweep, fold laundry, move laundry from the washer to the dryer or from the washer to the basket and then help hang it on the line, and put away dishes and clean clothes, though she's more likely to be interested in putting away clothes that aren't hers than her own.

I'm mildly obsessive compulsive, it becomes full-on OCD when I am medicated for my ADHD, which is why I no longer take meds. For me, it's been really hard to let go of my perfectionism while she's been learning how to do these things. She started helping hanging out laundry when she was about 18 months old, and it's only very recently that her 'help' has become actually useful. At this point, she's a godsend at dinnertime (last night was a 'juvenile junk dinner' night- we made corn-dog cupcakes, carrot sticks, and ranch dip - she chopped up the hotdogs while I made corn bread batter and we assembled them together.) A few nights ago, an open bottle of oregano got knocked over onto the floor. She swept the leaves up, perfectly, by herself. But it's been a long time getting to that point.