Teen Does Not Do His Chores?

As much as teens hate doing chores, it remains a crucial part of their development.

Among the many benefits, teens get from participating in the household work is that it teaches them how to work independently, how to carry out their assigned roles, and how to take part in a social setting where everyone is contributing something to the community.

Most importantly, household work is an inevitable part of life, and chores prepare kids for this inevitability.

Just as parents prepare their kids to earn a living for themselves by sending them to school, it is also the responsibility of parents to see that their kids are ready to manage and maintain a home of their own.

Also, kids who participate in the household work tend to be more proactive with regards to keeping the household clean, and are less likely to make a mess if their chores involve cleaning it.

Guideline for Assigning Chores at Home

Assign appropriate chores

Assigning chores that is best suited to specific gender will make your teens less likely to balk and refuse.

For example, give the outside housework, i.e. mowing the lawn and disposing of the trash, to your teenage son, and the indoor cleaning, i.e. sweeping the floor, dusting, and vacuuming, to your daughter. Similarly, hand over the highly strenuous tasks, like heavy lifting to boys and typically female stuff like mending of clothes and ironing to girls. By assigning housework according to accepted gender roles, teens will less likely to dispute the work that is given to them.

Also, it is important to give duties that are age appropriate. For example, very young children should only be limited to wiping dirty surfaces or any of those they are capable of performing. Older teenagers can help with the minor do it yourself repair stuff around the household.

Remember, it is important to teach your teens new skills once in a while, and one way of doing this is by allowing them to handle the more complicated housework.

Give your teens choice

Anyone, and not just teens, would prefer to have to say in what kind of the work he or she can do. Plus, they are more likely to follow through on the work they themselves have chosen.

When allocating chores to your teens, give a list of chores with ample choices so that they have the freedom to choose which task they would rather do. These chores do not even have to be of equal intensity because can assign proportionate workload to everyone according to its weight.

Assign chores that need to be done daily

Chores, in every practical sense, are a recurring task that is done every day. By assigning recurring chores that need to be done daily, you are helping your teens develop time management skills.

Everyday tasks should be fairly simple and quick, preferably not taking more than 30 minutes to execute, or else you are going to hear lots of complaints. Examples of these are preparing food for lunch or dinner, washing the dishes after every meal, sweeping the floor, watering the plants, cleaning the bathrooms, etc.

Stay on course

Some parents find assigning chores to their teen's to be quite a challenge. The busier the parents become, the more likely they will find it easier and less of a hassle to do the chores themselves than to stand ground and wait for their teens to do it.

This is unfortunate because it will give teens the wrong message that they can get away from doing chores if they put off doing it long enough. Eventually, parents will have to do it themselves. They will stop asking their teens to help out. Parents who do this are setting up their teens to have a false sense of entitlement, a belief that "the world owes them something."

Thus, it is important for parents to stay on course and never acquiescence to a teen's attempts to avoid chores. Do not give in no matter how much they argue, complain or make a fuss out of it. Make use of proper leverage, for example, you can respond by saying "Well, it is up to you. But I want it done now, and you are not going to play video games or watch television until it is done". This way, you are giving your teen a choice and an incentive to get the chore done.