A new study has revealed that getting kids to complete household chores when they’re young could help them to become professionally successful adults.
During a Ted Talk called How To Raise Successful Kids — Without Over-Parenting, Julie Lythcott-Haims, the former Dean of Freshmen at Stanford University, claims that children who do chores around the house are far more likely to be professionally successful adults.
She mentioned the Harvard Grant Study, which states that the earlier children start doing chores, the earlier a ‘can-do’ attitude and behaviour is instilled into them.
By doing jobs around the house, Julie explained, children will learn the act of rolling up their sleeves and pitching in to do whatever needs to be done, in order to finish the task.
Julie went on to describe how this sort of attitude is exactly what will get young people ahead in the workplace. Whereas a ‘checklisted childhood’ of achievements such as keeping their grades up, taking up hobbies and attending extra-curricular activities and classes, etc will not.
She said, ‘In the checklisted childhood, we absolve our kids of doing the work of chores around the house, and then they end up as young adults in the workplace still waiting for a checklist, but it doesn’t exist.
‘More importantly, [they’re] lacking the impulse, the instinct to roll up their sleeves and pitch in and look around and wonder, ‘How can I be useful to my colleagues? How can I anticipate a few steps ahead to what my boss might need?’ she added.
It is unlikely that any child will find chores very exciting, especially if they’re not yet accustomed to doing them, so the key to this exercise is to make sure young children especially are having fun doing them by turning it into a game.
Rather than setting them up with tasks and leaving them to it, try making the task into a family exercise by getting involved and showing them the different jobs that need to be done and how to do them.
