4 Household Chores You Should Be Assigning to Your Teens

Don’t let your child become an adult who doesn’t know how to do simple chores. Not only does teaching your children age-appropriate chores provide them with skills that they’ll need once they live on their own, but it helps clear some of the responsibility from your plate. Teenagers are capable of handling many chores, and they can add the chores below to the easier tasks they’ve already learned.

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Cleaning Bedrooms

By the time your children have become teenagers, they should be cleaning their rooms, not you. This means changing bed linens and picking up laundry, putting away possessions, dusting, vacuuming, and returning any items that belong in other rooms. Once the sheets and clothing are in the basket, your teenaged children can wash them, dry them, and put them away.

Yardwork

Whether it’s mowing the lawn, raking the leaves or shoveling the sidewalk, teenagers can lend a hand. The work can be good exercise for young, capable bodies. Of course, you don’t have to send them out with a manual mower. A riding lawnmower, like those available from Cox Mowers, makes short work of larger yards as long as your teen cleans up debris beforehand.

Cooking Dinner

Many parents, mothers especially, assume that making dinner is their responsibility, but teenagers can help with this, too. You can choose to leave a meal plan that your child can follow to make dinner or another meal or to give them the opportunity to choose something to make themselves. One option to encourage them to cook is to let them pick out a recipe that they’d like to try.

Petcare

Many children beg for a family pet, swearing that they’ll take care of it. But how often does that happen? When your child becomes a teenager, there’s no reason not to help take care of Whiskers or Fido. He can feed and water the animal, bath it, brush him, wash him, and clean litter boxes or cages. Of course, these activities help your child bond with his pet and prepare him for pets and children in the future.

If you haven’t consistently assigned chores, you can invite your children to help you with these chores and post a calendar or chart to help keep them accountable for their new tasks. Be sure to check in on them to ensure chores are done correctly and provide assistance if necessary. Thank your teen for his help and commend his hard work to encourage good behavior.