How to Get Your Kids to Help with Chores at Home

Families have been home for 8 uninterrupted weeks. Our ovens, dishwashers, laundry machines, vacuums, and other appliances are being used like never before. And yet, the list of households tasks seems endless. So how can parents stay on top of everything while having kids home nonstop? Enlist the children! If you don’t already have your little ones help with all the work at home, now is definitely the time to start. We chatted with three experts to get their advice on how to get started and some ideas for chores for kids by age.

“When we engage our kids in chores, we are telling them that they are valuable members of the household—they help keep it clean or help keep family members fed,” says Cara Natterson, M.D., board certified pediatrician and founder of Worry Proof Consulting and author of Decoding Boys.

In fact, household chores can be considered part of homeschooling.

“From cooking to organizing, kids use numerous skills such as estimating, measuring, sorting, and prioritizing when they help with chores,” says Lauren Tingley, an elementary school teacher and founder of Simply-Well-Balanced.com.

Make chores fun!

Part of assigning chores is simple logistics (Who is big enough to take out the big garbage can?) and part of it is going with whatever your children seem most interested in doing. You may have one child who loves to sweep and vacuum just like a grown-up, and another who is more inclined to sit and sort laundry with you. The key is to communicate calmly and matter-of-factly, and to wrap everything in a positive package without pleading or threats of punishment.

“If you describe chores as the things kids do to be part of the family team, you’ll likely get more eager participation,” Natterson says. And be sure to point out how their cooperation is helping the family and household run smoothly. 

Whether you assemble a chore chart or use chore cards or just have a verbal agreement via family meeting is up to you. Just be sure to present and streamline the process in a way that indicates fun and not work for your family. For younger children, Tingley recommends using chores as part of a familiar game, like filling a BINGO board with daily to-dos. For older children, she likes tracking apps such as BusyKid. And don’t forget to include yourselves as parents on any charts outlining responsibilities, Natterson says.

Make responsibilities clear and consistent.

Oxana Ivanchenko, co-founder of the Sweepy app, which helps turn cleaning into a game, stresses the importance of tidying up and taking care of the house as a regular part of the family routine. Try to make it as everyday an occurrence as eating breakfast or taking a shower. Find where it all fits in your schedules. Then give specific instructions like, “Please pick up the toys and put them in the cabinet,” not just “Clean up the family room!”