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Children need structure in their lives. They have their morning routines, school, play and study time, but they also need to know they have responsibilities at home too. Giving your child household chores can help establish responsibility at an early age.

Be sure the chores you choose for your child are age appropriate. You can increase both difficulty of chores and amount of chores as your child grows older.

Some ideas of things your child can do are cleaning their room, taking out the trash, washing dishes, sweeping floors, dusting, mowing, weeding, watering the plants or flowers or even starting dinner. If you have a pet your child can take them for a walk when they get home.

Be sure to keep some fun in your chores. Change them from week to week and add little incentives along the way. You can pay an allowance or hide special gifts for your child to find while doing their chores.

Also make your child aware that if the chores are not completed they will have consequences such as no phone that night or no company on Saturday. This will instill in your child that it is a responsibility, not just something Mom or Dad don’t want to do.

By starting your child at a young age with household chores you will teach your children responsibilities that they will carry through their entire lives.