Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Chores Your Toddler Can Do!



When I wash dishes, without fail my little guy comes and tries to push me away from the sink. Most of the time I just want to get the dishes done quickly, but when he started to push me away because he wants to play in the water I needed to rethink my strategy. 


How do I still get the dishes done, but stop him from interrupting? 
I tried moving him into a different room and distracting him with toys but he would still find his way back in between the sink and my legs, pushing at me to let him play. That boy loves water, if its near he wants to play in it. The same goes for when he is sleeping. If he hears running water he's up, without fail.

Finally, I decided to let him help. I plopped him up onto the counter, placed his little legs into the sink and gave him the sponge. Showed him how to scrub but, I found that he was just content being next to me while I do dishes. To my surprise I was able to get the rest of the dishes finished quickly. 
Now this doesn't happen all the time, but I decided that if he wanted to be next to me while I worked, that teaching him along the way wasn't too bad of an idea. 
My little one just turned 2 and one thing I love about him at this stage is his desire to help with everything. He is a very willing and eager participant just wanting to soak in everything. And it is at this stage that it is important to introduce the concept of chores. 


Chores that a toddler can do:
  • Throw away diaper 
  • Put away their dishes - My guy has his own drawer for his dishes that is at his level. 
  • Help wash dishes 
  • Put away toys 
  • Wipe down table/spilled milk or juice 
  • Pick up spilled cereal 
  • Help vacuum (Kind of) - He helps me push, and then gets tired and finds something else to do. Or the time when he dumped an entire bowl of dry cereal just for me to vacuum up. 
  • Putting Laundry into the machines 


These chores are easy for the little ones to do, which gives them the independence and the "I did it myself" confidence. Now, majority of the time I am the one to do these things, however, when the opportunity presents himself I have him do the chore.

There are a few things that I am consistent with: if he made a mess I ask him to clean it up and help him along showing him every step of the way. For example, if he dumped his dry cereal,  or milk I give him a bowl to pick up the cereal or a rag to wipe up the milk. I ask him almost every time to throw away his own diaper, I have no idea why but he loves doing it, so I let him. 

Normally, if I am doing something around the house he will want to help, and I definitely do not want to discourage that because I wouldn't be doing him any favors if I raised him not having to help out around the house. 

If we can teach our kids to do things now around the house, it not only teaches helpfulness but it also teaches them that we work together as a family to make our home nice. Also, if I can teach and encourage his want to help now, maybe just maybe he will continue to want to help around the house as he grows older. (Wishful thinking I know!) 

I believe that if we teach them to do things when they are young, that they will be well equipped for when they are on their own.   


Your Turn: What Chores Do Your Kids Do?
Comment in the comment section below! 


17 comments:

  1. This is so great! My son is four and has a few "chores" like putting his clothes in the hamper, bringing his dinner plate into the kitchen, etc. He also LOVES to help me pour the laundry detergent in the washing machine and throw in the clothes! I love that you included that one :)

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    1. Thats wonderful he loves to help! I give my son the clothes and he pushes them in since we have front loaders, then I let him press the button. Thats his favorite! Same with the vacuum cleaner, he has to turn it on for me :)

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  2. Oooh these are great ideas!! With my 18m old we are just getting to this point. This was really helpful :) Thank you for posting!

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    1. Just find what what your little one loves to do and praise for helping! Its an amazing age because all they want to do is learn and copy what you do!

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  3. These are perfect! My kids are older now, and I sure missed the boat with some of these. Never too late, right?

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    1. Nope its never too late, unless you wait until they are out of the house then they will have to figure it out on their own! haha. That was the case with me! I didn''t learn how to take care of the house until I had my own apartment when no one would do anything for me, rude awakening let me tell you! :)

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  4. Great list! My oldest loves clearing the table and letting the dogs out back. My youngest isn't as willing to chip in unfortunately. She's getting there though :). They both love getting dog treats for the dogs. Not very surprising ;)

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    1. Its definitely a process, most of the time when I ask him to help he looks at me like, I don't think so. But if I make it fun he is always willing! :)

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  5. Chores are great and teach kids all about responsibility.

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  6. It's good to give you children chores early, it makes them more independent and responsible.

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  7. It's so important that the children learn to do chores. My son is a tween and it's really hard for him.

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    1. Consistency! I never had that growing up with chores and cleaning so it never stuck!

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  8. Such great ideas! My 4 year old loves to "try to help vaccum" and he also loves helping with dishes! I let him wash the plastic cups and plates :)

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    1. So cute! Plastic is definitely best with little ones, K loves washing and dumping out water from his cups!

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  9. This makes me feel bad for all of the times I say no, when my little girl wants to help me do the dishes....she always does....Thanks for the lesson in patience, even though that wasn't exactly the theme for this post. :)

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    1. You are not alone, oh gosh I have snapped at my son a few times because he will just push me away from the sink when all I want to do is get things done. Now if he does that I just plop him down and he just washes a cup or two and I can get everything else done. I have found that the more I say yes to K the less frustrated I get and the better behaved he is.
      So glad you were able to take something from this!

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  10. Great post! Some of this I never thought of as it was just easier for me to do! I will be referring back to this!

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