With kids heading back to school after the holidays, it’s important to make sure that they feel motivated and focused when they’re back in the classroom. Some kids might struggle with motivation after being away from school for so long. For parents, one way to help build back self-esteem and focus on their children is through household chores. Though the kids might be resistant at first, they’ll come to realize that household chores help them feel motivated, needed, and successful!
The Importance of Feeling Needed
The need to belong and feel important is incredibly critical to everybody, but especially so in our youth. When kids feel unneeded, they feel lost. When kids feel lost, they’re far less likely to succeed in homework, schoolwork, and other activities in their life. Kids are also more likely to mingle with the wrong crowd at school to try and feel needed. To combat this, parents should aim to provide their children with responsibilities to help around the house from a young age.
Try This: Make a list of everything you do around the house to help keep things running smoothly. Then ask yourself, “Which of these tasks are my children capable of doing?” If your kids can do something, they probably should be. Everything that we do FOR our children is something that they might never learn to do for themselves.
As kids begin to contribute more and more to the family – and are treated with empathy every step of the way – they’ll feel more included in the success and happiness of the family. This will not only help prepare children for the obstacles they’ll encounter later in life, but also will help alleviate some of the stresses that parents go through. Think of chores less as chores, and more as family contributions.
Wondering if parents should give their child allowance for completing chores? While rewarding kids for chores can be motivating, it’s essential to focus on teaching the intrinsic value of contributing to the family. Connecting their tasks to confidence-building and responsibility helps raise confident kids who feel good about their achievements.
How Do Chores Build Confidence?
At first glance, kids might hate the idea of completing these contributions. However, once a task is completed, children can look back at their task and feel joy from completing it! Part of this joy is simply from getting the chores over with, but the other part is from feelings of pride and accomplishment.
Students can then carry this confidence into other factors of their life to help build success. If a child goes through several “tough” chores at home, they might find that schoolwork and homework are actually easier than they thought. The irony is that parents who expect their children to work hard on family contributions actually create children who are far happier as they encounter the realities of life.
For younger children, consider incorporating children’s books to teach responsibility as a fun way to illustrate the importance of pitching in. Combining storytelling with real-world chores builds both responsibility and confidence in kids.
Chores to Do for Your Parents
Empathy plays a significant role in raising responsible, confident kids. Encourage your children to think about the tasks they can do for you or other family members. Adding items like "helping with dishes," "folding laundry," or "sweeping floors" to a household chores checklist teaches children to appreciate the value of teamwork and shared responsibilities.
The Important Balance
At the end of the day, kids are still kids. The confidence-boosting nature of family contributions only works within the context of a loving family where children are able to do what children need to do: Play! Maintaining a healthy balance between fun and housework is essential in creating a relationship between children and parents. With this balance in place, children will feel like their duties to the family are more important and they’ll feel like their enjoyment is well earned.
Looking for more confidence-building activities for kids? Simple everyday tasks like making their bed, setting the table, or organizing their toys can be excellent opportunities to teach responsibility while building their sense of accomplishment.
With chores, kids will feel needed, motivated, fulfilled, and ready to tackle some of life’s biggest challenges! Parents can find more details about chores and contributing to the family unit in my audio, Chores: Why Kids Need Them…and How to Get Even the Most Challenging Ones to Do Them.
Thanks for reading!
The Love and Logic Team
