Chores and Children: Kids Must do Chores because Parents Need a Break

1-Jun-2021

Reposting a blog series about children and chores from 2011, you can read the original of this post here.

I need a break…

Be it resolved that the truth of kids doing chores is ‘mom/dad needs a break.’

Opposed: How do you know that’s true?

Affirmative: I/we work hard

Opposed: Good. Hard work is good for people, especially their mental health.

Opposed: What’s mom/dad ‘needing a break’ got to do with kids?

Affirmative: they can help, so they should

Opposed: Sorry, that’s a syllogism: you can, too, so you should do it.

Affirmative: there aren’t enough hours in the day, they have to pitch in

Opposed: There are 24 hours in every day which you can spend any way you choose. Your time should be spent on your priorities: if it’s important to you, do it. If it is less important to you… why should anyone else do it?

Affirmative: my skills and talents are far superior to the work, someone whose time is less valuable should do menial work

Opposed: Therefore, let’s not be coy: a child’s time is less valuable to you than yours is, so they can do the less valuable tasks to free you up to do the more meaningful and valuable and rewarding tasks with your much more worthwhile life, yes?

Opposed: Could you demonstrate how your time is more valuable to your children than their time is to them? Or perhaps argue simply that your life is more valuable than theirs, and with it you are entitled to leisure time that they are not?

Affirmative: well, I pay them for chores, so I clearly value them

Opposed: Do you pay them what their time is worth to them or what your time is worth to you? Or a couple of bucks? Or a quarter?

Linda Clement is a parenting coach who works with highly successful parents who are seeking to break the cycle of transgenerational trauma. If you're ready to leave a legacy your great-grandchildren will thrive with, you're invited to start here with half an hour on Linda's calendar...

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