Want Successful Teens? Let Them Experience Real Life and the Benefits of Chores
By: Gregg Murset, CEO BusyKid
Unsurprisingly, kids who do chores often succeed later in life. Like encouraging your kids to eat their vegetables, chores are packed with good things growing children need to become successful adults. For example, a recent survey from online polling company Pollfish discovered that moms and dads who had kids regularly complete chores found them to perform better in school and be more responsible, accountable, dependable, disciplined, and creative.
So, if there are benefits of chores for kids, why aren’t we all incorporating them into our parenting routine? I think we can agree that all parents want their kids to grow up to be solid and successful adults who are respected members of society.
However, what helps a parent succeed in life may not get trickled down to their kids. Case in point: a recent survey from BusyKid found that while 90% of parents said they had benefits of chores while growing up, only 55% admitted their kids doing chores.
The truth is, not everyone likes eating vegetables, no matter how good they can be for you – and the same holds with chores. I suggest parents pay their children to complete tasks around the house. It’s so much more important than just kids working and parents paying. It’s about families working together to prepare children to face the financial realities ahead of them.
Remember, the idea is to raise your kids and have them move out independently. If they come back as adults, something has gone wrong. So, how can chores help your teens?
Get Active
Recent research has found that the average teen is no more active than the average 60-year-old. Moreover, physical activity levels among teens are so low that more than half of all teens fail to reach the recommended 60 minutes of activity each day.
Though your kids may want to come home after school to play video games, watch TV or jump on social media, giving them a few chores to fill in the time will get them moving and help keep the house organized.
Develop a Work Ethic
If you ever get the chance to talk to a manager of a fast-food restaurant, movie theater, or any other place where teens work, it becomes evident that most teens aren’t ready to work. For the most part, you hear them described as irresponsible, immature, self-centered, and attached to phones. In other words, they lack a solid work ethic.
Doing chores can help develop all the good traits any employer would want from an employee. To top it off, there is another benefit of chores. If you pay your child an allowance, they can learn how to manage their earnings before getting a paycheck for the first time.
Financial Smarts
There is nothing more important for your child to learn between 12-18 than managing finances. While some parents don’t want their children focused on money from such an early age, the truth is that the U.S. ranks far behind globally regarding financial literacy, and part of the reason is that our kids are introduced so late or to this process.
Stop thinking of allowance the old-fashioned way and start looking at it as part of their education. Kids need hands-on experience in earning and managing money; if they don’t get it from you, they won’t get it from anyone.
Meet Expectations
We must live up to expectations set by our family, work, school, or community. Chores provide parents the perfect opportunity to establish some clear accountability measures for a teen to meet. Providing clear direction to your child, including how and when they should complete a project, can help your son or daughter understand expectations and why merely finishing a task is not enough.
Conclusion
According to many parents, kids who are involved in chores at a young age are more likely to be responsible and accountable adults. The more work expectations we can teach kids at an early age, the better chances we have of raising good adults. Starting them off with housework can help develop that work ethic. Teaching them about money and the value of hard work can give them an advantage.
Raising responsible, accountable, and disciplined children can be easier than you think! Encourage and facilitate a more positive experience for you and your kids. The benefits of chores are that they help nurture your children in a constructive way that is fun and rewarding.
Gregg Murset, CEO BusyKid
Gregg Murset is the co-founder & CEO of BusyKid. He is best known as the groundbreaking inventor of My Job Chart, which grew to nearly 1 million members in four years. My Job Chart was the first electronic chore/allowance platform to take advantage of our modern digital society. A father of six, Gregg is a certified financial planner and consultant who became a leading advocate for sound parenting, child accountability, and financial literacy.
