Bradley Hospital Parenting Guide:
Childhood Chores
Chores Teach Responsibility
Chores allow children an early and sustained opportunity to experience
responsibility. Independence and self-sufficiency in life are tied,
ultimately, to mastery of two types of responsibility: personal
and social responsibility.
The process of identifying, accepting and acting to satisfy personal
and social responsibility must be learned, and children learn this
process when their parents accept the responsibility of teaching
it to them.
Some Lessons Are
Easier Than Others
Most parents experience no difficulty in creating opportunities
for the development of personal responsibility in their children.
Beginning with toilet training, parents usually assign tasks to
their children that allow them to progress toward independence,
such as washing their own faces, brushing their own teeth, dressing
themselves, completing homework and attending school. For the most
part, children have no difficulty acknowledging the existence of
personal responsibilities and accept them readily.
Parents often experience greater difficulty in developing opportunities
for their children to acquire a sense of social responsibility.
Assigning household chores is a way for parents to teach children
about social responsibility by employing the most fundamental and
easily accessible unit of society: the family.
If you feel overwhelmed, you can call Bradley Hospital anytime:
401-432-1000.
How children benefit from chores
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