Why should children help with household chores?

Independence: By the time your child is a teenager you probably expect them to help with household tasks. Independence must, however, be practiced earlier and does not automatically come with their 14th birthday. Also, young adults can organize themselves better in their first own apartment or shared flat if they already completed tasks at their parents' home.

Task and time management: Through initial tasks and responsibilities your child develops a sense of how to organize themselves to accomplish certain things. Your child gains an understanding of time planning and is encouraged to think about when to do what so that tasks, for example, do not clash with other hobbies or meetings with friends.

Sense of responsibility: Your child develops an awareness of their duties. For this reason, for example, it makes sense to always assign your child the same fixed areas of responsibility. Such a sense of duty is a good foundation for school, university and work.

Pride and sense of togetherness: Working together for the home strengthens family cohesion. When everyone has to pitch in, appreciation for the respective tasks increases and everyone feels like contributing to family life to contribute. This also increases pride in one's own work.

The best training: Many parents hesitate when it comes to assigning household chores to their children. On the one hand, the little ones should be able to enjoy their childhood; on the other hand, many tasks are completed faster and neater if you take them on yourself quickly. However, children train their perception and their motor skills here.

Our household tips

Practical step stool to join in the kitchen

Most of the time it only takes a few little tricks and many things around the house become easier. Everyday challenges then turn into wonderfully unforgettable moments. To help you master challenges, we will now regularly provide you with clever and witty ideas, which you can easily put into practice. They make life with kids so much more colorful, easier and more beautiful. Let this hack inspire you and try it out:

Your child dashes through the kitchen whinging because they're Huuunger? They whine because they're bored while you cook or bake? Here's our Eye-level hack: let your child join in! You will see, it works better than expected. The little ones really go all out when they're allowed to help.

To bridge the missing centimeters between you, a height-adjustable step stool is the ideal kitchen helper. Your child stands right beside you on it and nothing escapes their notice anymore. Often the little one is already delighted just to watch mom and dad. Or the kids eagerly chop their own playdough-salad creations with a plastic playdough knife. Whatever it is: with the same working height everything is much easier.

Smart vacuum idea to tackle chaos in the kids' room

Do you know that? There are a thousand little pieces on the kids' room floor, but a "basic cleaning" is still needed? But how — without vacuuming up toy crumbs or spending ages tidying up first?

Our hack: a stocking with a mesh pattern. It must be large enough to let the dirt through but too fine-meshed for Lego & Co. Pull the stocking over the suction tube and secure it there with an elastic band. Then put the vacuum attachment on and you're good to go!

Sucked-up small parts get at most as far as the attachment thanks to the 'stocking membrane'. From there you can easily rescue them and return them to the toy rotation. All clean, everything there, everyone happy!

Legal regulations on helping around the house

As parents you probably ask yourselves: Are children allowed to help around the house or is it child labor? According to the Civil Code (BGB), children and adolescents are even obliged to help around the household according to their level of development. In §1619 of the BGB it reads:

"The child is, as long as it belongs to the parental household and is being raised or maintained by the parents, obliged to perform services for the parents in their household and business in a manner appropriate to its abilities and social position."

Helping out in everyday life together is important. However, your child should of course still have enough time and space to simply be a child!

From an early age: Which household chores are appropriate at which age?

Between 3 and 6 years: Younger children usually want to help around the house, because what mom and dad are doing is interesting and wants to be explored. Putting away toys, finding matching socks, handing over items while cooking, or giving the flowers a drink with their own watering can – children usually enjoy these tasks a lot.

Between 6 and 10 years: Now your child can already be fully responsible for their bedroom. In addition to tidying and making the bed, dusting and vacuuming are also included. Your child can also help with the laundry now, take out the trash and take responsibility for the pet. You can also confidently trust your child to dress themselves, tie their shoes and spread their own bread.

Between 10 and 16 years: Not only can your child now set the table and unload the dishwasher on their own. Early attempts in the kitchen — maybe with a bit of support — with simple dishes like pasta, sauces, fried eggs or pancakes will sometimes take the cooking off your hands. As your child grows older, small repair tasks like hammering or changing a light bulb, as well as weeding, are no problem. They can also do grocery shopping themselves or already look after younger siblings.

From 16 onwards: During puberty, resistance to taking part in household chores increases. Of course, your child must still continue to take part and take responsibility. If they want to be treated like an adult, they should behave that way. Also, consistently and steadily carrying out tasks helps personal development. Duties can then gradually become more complex.

How to motivate your child to help around the house

Lead by example: You can only demand from your child what you also model yourself. So you should do household tasks with the same enthusiasm that you expect from your child and also admit when you don't feel like it and still get the tasks done. By the way: When your children see that the housework doesn't always fall on one parent, they are also more motivated to help.

Fair distribution: Housework should be divided fairly. Tasks are distributed according to age and time. Don't give your child only the tasks you don't like to do yourself. It's best if everyone has done everything once. This also increases appreciation for the different tasks.

Make a plan: Create a colorful household chart with the tasks written down and small name cards that can be slid back and forth: This way everyone can see who has to do what and can remove their name from a task as soon as they have completed it.

Praise instead of pay: Better to praise once too often than too little. Through praise your child feels the value of their work and develops pride and self-confidence. Rewarding household work with pocket money is not helpful: as an adult, these tasks must also be taken on without receiving a reward for them. More on Allowance rules for children you can read in our article.

Not too much or too little: Pay attention that your child can handle the tasks well. Under-challenging makes your little one feel that you perhaps don't trust them and don't take them seriously. Tasks that are too demanding, however, cause frustration and reduce motivation.

Don't strive for perfection: Remember – your child is still learning. They don't have the same sense of order and cleanliness as you. It can happen that the dust isn't wiped away as you expect or the dishes aren't loaded into the dishwasher the way you imagined. Talk to your child about your expectations, because only then can they learn and improve. However, if you silently start "improving" the work, you give your child the impression that their work was not good enough.

Image credits

Dad vacuums the kitchen with his two children © Halfpoint - stock.adobe.com

Toddler takes dishes out of the dishwasher © Halfpoint - stock.adobe.com

Mother and children do laundry together © ABCreative - stock.adobe.com