Parents often complain that their children don’t help out around the house enough and when they do they don’t like doing it. Children aren’t inherently lazy, but they will be reluctant to do things that don’t seem fun to them without proper motivation. At school, their only motivation to not goof off in class might be the looming threat of punishment. This is one way parents could motivate their children to do more around the house, but most parents don’t want to have an antagonistic relationship with their children. Children love dressing up and playing make believe. Little girls often play with baby dolls and pretend to be mommies and little boys love playing cops and robbers. These games are made even more fun for them if they can dress up. Little girls will grab mommy’s lipstick and high heels while little boys want to wear daddy’s ties. Parents can use this to their advantage when it comes to chores. If they want their children to help out in the kitchen, they can give them aprons and gloves. This will most likely work better for girls since children are very decisive about what “boy things” and “girl things” are. In general, most girls would love to play housewife with their mother, but boys probably would not. Fathers can teach their boys to do chores that require more brute strength. Gardening is a great way to involve children in chores. Children of both genders will love playing outside in the dirt and helping to plant things. If they need even more motivation than that, parents could buy their kids high vis shirts. These shirts will look like working clothes and if their parents wear the same style of clothing while working in the garden they will associate it with dressing up as an adult and doing adult things. Buying kids high vis shirts will also protect children from getting hurt. Since these shirts are high vis, children will easily be seen. If they should slip out of the yard and into the streets there is less chance of them getting hurt by cars. Since they’re so highly visible, parents will likely be able to see their movements more easily in their peripheral vision. Other people in the streets are also more likely to approach a child wearing safety clothing and get them back home, since these children will easily be noticed. Other ways parents can help their children to do more chores is by setting a rewards system in place. For every chore, they should get points. Once they have enough point they should be able to exchange it for a treat like candy or their favorite food for dinner. Positive reinforcement will work a lot better to make children happy to help out around the home than negative reinforcement will. Parents should try to imagine how they felt as kids and do things that they wished their parents would have done. This means that chores should be made to be fun and not used as punishment.
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