How To Set Deadlines For Children’s Household Chores
Children, both toddlers and preteens and teens, sometimes put off the things they have to do. It seems like homework can wait forever. They are not a priority for them. In fact, the housework sometimes more like an imposition of a duty or responsibility that they must fulfill.
Therefore, it is important that they are guided by their parents at all times. Firstly, so that they understand that these are tasks they must fulfill because they correspond to them and, secondly, to guide them in the organization process , thus promoting responsibility for the tasks they need to perform each day.
Set deadlines for your children’s household chores
It is known that there is a higher incidence of anxiety, depression, behavioral problems, and alcohol abuse in children from overly indulgent families than in children raised in homes where parents set consistent limits and responsibilities. Taking on household responsibilities is a very good thing for children.
Tasks need deadlines. Relatively short deadlines for daily tasks and more generous deadlines for less frequent tasks.
On nights when everyone is dining together, family members need to know that dinner dishes need to be washed and the dining room needs to be tidied. In addition, it is always possible to show how the kitchen should be cleaned so that they know what is expected of them and so that they don’t have so much difficulty.
Another example might be that clothes need to be folded as soon as they are dry to reduce wrinkles. If your teen is doing something else right now, ask when he can fold it (in 15 minutes? 30 minutes?). Set the kitchen timer to remind you to do this task.
Advantages of setting deadlines for household tasks
One advantage of setting a deadline for daily chores and weekly chores, for example cleaning porch furniture before 6pm on Friday, is that your child can feel more freedom to do the chore, as well as learning a different kind of responsibility. If the task is done on Thursday, on Friday afternoon he can start the weekend with friends earlier.
If you’re still at work in the afternoon and your child comes home, you have the perfect opportunity to delegate specific tasks with a set deadline. Your child can start dinner or arrange the house so that it’s in order in the afternoon, in his spare time.
Leave a to-do list for each afternoon, detailing what’s planned for dinner and what needs to be done ahead of time. Another advantage is that the tasks will be completed with everyone’s collaboration.
As the schedules of each family member change, it will be necessary to revise the household chores so that everyone has tasks they can still do within the new schedule.
Be flexible but firm at the same time.
Once deadlines for daily tasks are set, you need to be flexible about some tasks that can wait. But even if you are flexible, it is important that your children know that this must be done before a certain time. So they will know what is expected of them at all times.
If at some point they haven’t done a task because they were doing something else, like studying for an important test, for example, you can certainly be flexible and forgiving, and therefore you don’t have to apply the consequences to that.
On the other hand, if your child didn’t do homework because he didn’t want to or because he was playing on the computer, things change. In that case, the consequences for the lack of collaboration and responsibility must be firm.
The consequences of not meeting deadlines for household chores should be agreed in advance to avoid conflicts in the future. This way, your kids will know what is expected of them at all times. In addition, they will also know what are the consequences of not doing what is necessary in relation to daily tasks.
About household chores and children
With that in mind, it will be much easier for your children to do their household chores, as they will know what is expected of them, what they should do, what the deadlines are and what are the consequences of non-compliance in the event of a attitude of rebellion or negligence.
