On Household Chores

[danieldwilliam]

My son, the Captain, recently turned 11.

I think he's ready to do some chores around the house. He's a reasonably sensible and trustworthy eleven year old.

My own experience of turning eleven and picking up some jobs around the house is, I think, not an ideal guide to how this should be done. My mum was a single parent to 4 kids, I'm the eldest. Things were fraught and a not necessarly well thought through.

So what are some reasonable jobs around the house for an eleven year old?

Comments

[andrewducker]

I'd start off by involving him in the tasks as you and YLW do them. Tell him that now he's older he's part of the general "keeping the house nice" squad, and it's only fair that all three of you do your fair share. That way you can train him up a bit to start with while he learns how to do them, and he can rotate through the tasks learning what he likes and hates the most. Then you can have a round-table between the three of you where you divide the tasks up and everyone gets their say.

(Some tasks are going to be parental tasks - he almost certainly isn't ready for "Cook the family meal" - but if he shows an interest then now is a good time to start getting him trained up on those!)