Age Appropriate Chores And House Work, in your opinion what is enough Options

[depressed lonely...]

In your opinion what is a reasonable amout of house work for a child or tenager to do.
is it dependant on age and how much money there is in the family?
Do you think extra chores should result in extra pocket/spending money? And shoyld there be a base amount of household chores done by everyone which you don't get paid to do but which if you don't your pocket money should be docked?


all this is brought up by the fact that my siblings(age 10 and14) do no house hold chores don't go to school and don't have activitys or friends to visit, whereas my mother does house work in addition to going to work 1-3 days a week and I do alot (possibly more than mum cos I'm a neat freak) when I have TAFE 5 days a week.

To me it seem unfair that they sit around all day with nothing to do but sleep late eat and watch TV but they don't clean up the messes they make and they certainly don't do anything helpfull.

I consider this unreasonable and lazy.
My mother brings up the fact that they're only 10 and 14 but reality is I did more than kirk does at 10 than he does at 14.

I am as such trying to get an outside opinion on wheather expecting things like washing ,washing up, putting away, feeding the animals tidying comunal living areas assistance with preparing meals and cleaning their own rooms is too much to expect of people their age.

And if possible at what age you think a level of contribution is fair.

[depressed lonely...]

Ryn my siblings don't go to school because they just don't feel like it and when they don't feel like doing som thing they don't do it, mum no longer gives them work to do because it stresses her out to make up work find books and such give it to my siblings and then spend hours forceing them to do a page of work.

I have spoken to my siblings and they don't care. They eat wheather they help to wash up put away or make food so it makes no difference what they do, mum and I both find it more stessful and annoying to have their clothesgoing mouldy in the laundry than to just do them. they don't particularly care about living in mess and their rooms aren't tidy because my brother sleeps in the lounge room on the lounge and my sister sleeps with mum in her bed.

trying to get them to do anything is to be honest exhausting like pulling teeth they have to be nagged on every step.
for example my brother had to wash the dishes being 4X dinner plates 4Xlittle plates 4X soup bowl 4X small bowl 4X big bowl 8X mugs to get out of this he
complained about the water being too hot, too dirty, he needed gloves, the gloves we had were too small, the ones we got then were itchy, ones we dug up from somwhere else were tight, there wasn/t enough soap, he couldn't stack the raining board he couldn't find the brush , the brush was broken, he needed a scourer,the owe had were too small he had to watch TV, his legs hurt, this is total crap you're all b***hes why should I do this and then he took off on his bike at 9:30 at night when this whole thing started at 6:40.
as you can imagine it very stressful to be around

I think there's a certain amount of chores you should just do but if a young person pays for their own clothes, shoes ,nick nacks they should have an allowance unless there are SERIOUS money problems.


Jonman I totally agree with this

On a different tack, my personal philosophy is that chores should be an essential part of raising kids. It teaches them the valuble lesson that sometimes, you just have to do unpleasant things. It also teaches valuable skills for when they leave home. You may laugh, but I went to school with a guy, who at the grand old age of 18, was incapable of washing up plates. Leaving home without a clue of how to clean up after yourself, let alone how to cook, is just asking for trouble.

chores aren't fun but they don't have to be unpleasant washing and kitchen chores can be theraputic provided they aren't allowed to stak up into days of work which our have(we had mushrooms growing on dirty plates then mum freaked out and threw them so she wouldn't have to wash them up) children shouldn't lay about it's unhealthy for the mind, body and soul.


One more thing
Cheese moose are you serious about eating at a table every day....we only do that christmas rest of the year we eat on our laps or on the floor





There's another issue if their pocket money is docked they steal everything not nailed down and that pisses me off but the way our parents raised us never really specifed not stealing so it probably somthing they'll have to outgrow.
But were it your child how would you deal with it.

[Moosh]

One more thing
Cheese moose are you serious about eating at a table every day....we only do that christmas rest of the year we eat on our laps or on the floor

Yes, we try to eat together at a table twice a day

[Novander]

Yes, we try to eat together at a table twice a day

When I'm home we usually all eat our main evening meal at the table together.

To be honest, I had it easy as far as chores are concerned. Empty/Load the dishwasher, lay the table and occasionally mow the lawn. And I'd complain about this because my sister would never do anything and my brother couldn't mow the lawn usually due to hayfever. Wimp.

And yeah, I never did any cooking either, so the first year of uni was a big learning experience. On more than one occasion I had to look up online how to cook something incredibly basic, because asking my flatmates would be admitting defeat.

A few weeks before uni started, my mum took me to a laundrette to show me how it all works, and then taught me how to iron (ha, as if I'll ever need to know how to do that).

I believe that no child should be expected to automatically do chores just because they're there and need doing. Children don't think like that. But if give child a chore to do - as a one off or on a regular basis - and they don't do it then they should be punished.

You have no idea, how much editing, of this post I had to do, to remove, unnecessary commas. I can't help it; I love the things. Not quite as much as semi-colons though.