Responsibilities

It is important for all family members to have responsibilities to help keep the household running. We believe in starting them young, like as soon as they are mobile.

We start with simple things that they are interested in doing. All toddlers love to fill and dump, well, everything. This can be the first step cleaning up toys. We keep all of the toys sorted so they are easy to put away, even if they aren't always neat. All of the puppets go in one bucket, the balls in another, etc. When you cheer and put things away toddlers are usually happy to help. They do need constant reminders to stay on task and each task must be broken down as simply as possible. You can't tell a toddler to clean up and expect something good to happen. You can tell them to put the stuffed animals on the shelf or the food in the kitchen and expect better results. We tell them what to do with each individual toy and cheer when they do it correctly. This is an extremely slow process, but one they need to learn.

Cleaning up a puzzle

As soon as the kids are capable we let them get dressed. This started with shoes and then they learned how to put on socks, pants, underwear, and shirts. By the time my kids were two they could completely dress themselves. Granted this takes around 30 minutes and we often don't have time for that. They really only practice this skill on the weekends. We help them on weekdays so that we can actually make it out of the house on time.

Those aren't your shoes!

The next job we gave the kids was pushing in their chairs after meals. They love to do this. It's simple and one (or in our case two) less things the adults have to do. We then added putting their dishes on the counter when they are finished, pulling out their chairs, and wiping down the table. They are so excited with each new job and we just keep slowly building our expectations so that it becomes habit.

Silly boy at meal time

There are many other jobs they do around the house as well. After they wake up, they put everything back on their beds. They take off their shoes and socks as soon as they get in the house. They help scrub during bath time. They spray water bottles and use a squeegee on the windows outside. They use spray bottles to water plants. They help cook whenever possible. They put food in the dog's bowl. I love seeing them help around the house.

I can pull the wagon.

What are some jobs your toddler does around the house?