Search Results for: blog kids need real chores not busy work

Kids Today Aren’t Assigned Chores

Do you require your children to do chores? I don’t mean the occasional request to help with a little bit of cleaning. Instead, I mean regularly assigned tasks that you expect your child to complete on a daily or weekly basis. It appears that the majority of parents today are not assigning chores to their children. A survey conducted by Whirlpool found that 82% of Americans did chores when they were children. That same survey found that only 28% of parents today are assigning their children chores. What changed between today and when the current generation of parents were kids? … Continue reading →

The Couple that Does Chores Together, Stays Together

On a recent episode of the sitcom “Raising Hope,” the married couple in the show clash over the division of their chores. They each make the other person do the chore they hate most, but by the end of the episode they’ve started doing those tasks together. They find that the jobs they hate most aren’t really so bad when they do them together. It struck me just how true to life that is (which is a rare thing to find on television). If I really don’t want to do something around the house, I’ve found it’s a lot easier … Continue reading →

Presence Matters

Are you present with your preschooler? I don’t mean are you around your preschooler, or at home, although those are definitely two aspects of being present. What do I mean? It’s easy to get caught up in other things when you’re at home. Whether this is cleaning the house, working from home, or an important phone call, it is often preschoolers who unconsciously get moved to the margins of our thinking. We’re busy. We want to engage with our kids, as soon as we get this task done. It’s fine to think about the mundane, but often our minds are … Continue reading →

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses #1: Busy Work

Why is it that students don’t do their homework? What motivates the decision for a student to ignore a task that has been set before them to complete? Why would a student make up reasons for why they were unable to complete their assignments? While I don’t claim to know all of the answers to these questions I certainly see potential clues every day I go to work. If we haven’t met allow me to introduce myself: I’m Kyle and I’m a dad. I’m also a Ph.D. student. I’m also a teacher. I’m also some other things. What’s important, however, … Continue reading →

Home Blog Month in Review: August

Did you have a good month? We seem to have packed an entire summer’s worth of activities in this past month. Now, it seems, it is back to school and time to get ready for autumn. Still, it is nice to look back toward warm sands and wearing shorts even as we will soon be crunching leaves and taking out the sweaters. August 1st Getting Out Grass Stains With summer in full swing, chances are that your family has been playing outdoors quite a bit. And with all of that outdoor play comes the grass stains, especially if you are … Continue reading →

How Can we Make Evenings More Relaxing?

For many single parent families, evenings can be incredibly hectic. When my children were younger, it was a toss-up between crazy mornings and hectic evenings, but over time, I developed some strategies for making at least some evenings more relaxing and less chaotic. I think carving out a more relaxing evening takes both planning and letting go. Prioritize what absolutely has to happen and then see if you can figure out a workable way to do it. Does everything have to happen before dinner? Can you spread things out to make room for more casual connections with your kids? How … Continue reading →

Children Need Human Contact

E-mail, computers, electronic games, the telephone–today’s kids have an entire world of “socialization” that occurs without them ever coming face-to-face with an actual human. Add to this reality, the fact that many live far away from grandparents and extended relatives, or never really get to know the people who live in their neighborhood and you can see how our children might be literally starved and challenged when it comes to actual, live human mentors and connections. I believe that we all need human contact for optimal personal development (not just our kids)! Many of our children go to overcrowded schools … Continue reading →

Kids Need REAL Chores, Not Busy Work

We talk here in the Parents Blog periodically about how important it is for kids to participate in family responsibilities in order to build esteem and character, but it is important that kids have REAL responsibilities and do valuable work and chores, not be given busy work just to keep them occupied. The other day I was out and about and I noticed a parent give a five-year-old a few books to carry, saying: “What a big helper you are!” The child looked at the parent with a combination of confusion and boredom. It was not a terribly challenging “chore” … Continue reading →

Let Kids Take on Some of the Holiday “Chores”

In single parent families, we parents do not always have to DO it all—this time of year there can be so many “chores” to do—gifts to wrap, cards to address, cookies to bake, etc. Instead of trying to be Super Parent and juggle all the balls, we can let our children in on the action. It can be another opportunity for our kids to help out in a useful way and get involved in the season—and by sharing the load we can also build a stronger, more bonded family… Over the years, my kids have not only gotten used to … Continue reading →

Home Chore List: Daily Cleaning Chores (2)

Have you been struggling with getting everything done around your home? It is wonderful to have a clean and organized home, but sometimes, well, most of the time, it can be tough to maintain. Or as Shelbybear62, a busy mom, employee and student said, it is a struggle keeping all of those balls in the air. I have found that having a list with set chores on it really helps me from getting that overwhelmed feeling and not knowing where to start. If you have been following this series, on Friday I gave you some of the daily chore list. … Continue reading →