Why helping at home is a lifeskill for kids
No one can deny that cleaning up home is boring and time-consuming. Nor can anyone deny that it is absolutely essential for everyone’s health and mental wellbeing. Most of us take the short cut in India – we hire house help – and often end up dependant on them. Our children imbibe these habits form us. However, this can be a problem going forward.
Why should kids learn the value of helping out at home?
We no more live in the world we grew up in the 1980’s or 1990’s. Being dependant on others for cooking, cleaning, shopping, and carrying out activities that actually take only a few minutes is not very practical now. Kids would not live their entire lives in the same house, city or even country. They would need to manage on their own to get forward in life. It’s simple, harsh and true. Irrespective of financial standing, children of this millennium have to learn the skills that will keep them independent for a lifetime. And helping themselves is one such skill.
What kind of house activities do kids need to pick up?
Here’s a quick list of essentials to get kids started:
- Cleaning up their desk, cupboard and room, making their own bed
- Keeping the windows and doors clean and checking whether they can be easily opened and closed
- Washing their own clothes
- Doing the dishes and taking out the garbage
- Making tea, chopping vegetables, fixing simple snacks for themselves instead of consuming packaged or junk food
- Making sure they plug in, plug out, charge, and shut down electronic and digital devices regularly
- Understanding and actively helping with grocery shopping
- Saving and buying decorative or regular use items they want to use at home
All of these activities teach them about the value of time and effort, and therefore, the value of money too. It will pave the way to a better lifestyle within any budget in future. While encouraging luxuriant habits in kids is not good, they must also learn to save and allow themselves luxuries if they want it.
How to convince your kids to do these activities?
To keep it organised, assign activities till it starts coming naturally to them. You may have to tell them to take out the garbage, but once they realise how much nicer the kitchen smells without yesterday’s vegetable peels, they will do it themselves. Be strict, but explain why they are doing these. And finally, appreciate effort. A bit of praise can do wonders for a kid.