Although the kitchen was small, the chore would take her forever, and she would often sit there amidst the scattered chairs, broom in one direction, dustpan in another, particles of dust and crumbs trickling into an attempted pile. Suddenly, however, this forlorn picture was transformed. Although young, my little sister soon became one of the best sweepers.
What changed? One day our dad β likely when my sister was sitting amidst a pile of scattered dust and crumbs β came up to her and walked her through the chore, teaching her to methodically go over each floorboard. That simple training, parent with child, side-by-side, doing a chore together, turned that miserable job into something my sister, young as she was, could be quite successful at. Doucleff is the author of " Hunt, Gather, Parent ," a new book which looks at other cultures and examines the ways in which they raise children to be helpful, uncomplaining laborers in the journey of life.
One of the main tricks to raising children in such a way, Doucleff says, is to have them do the same chores their parent is doing at the same time. Yet if parents want to take the easy way out and do everything themselves, they are programming their child to lose interest and later complain when asked to pull their share of the load around the house.
But in doing so, parents are not only training their children to be lazy at home; they are also training them to be less successful at life in general. So why are children who learn to do chores early on more successful at life in general?
I would suggest it is because chores not only teach life skills, but because they teach humility as well. Family physician and author Dr. In reflecting on his comments, however, I started thinking. We want our houses to look good to others, so dishes or vacuuming done by a child still learning the task might not make the house as presentable as we would like.
