Allowance

[Lee-Bee]

My cousins (I have 19 so use them as examples often) grew up being responsible for 1/4 of the house work (family of 4). They were responsible for everything including cooking supper on their own 2x a week. It mean the family ate random meals that the 7plus year olds could cook but they did their share. They used the oven at a very young age and never once burned themselves because they were taught how to use it.

Right now our 22month old sorts the recycling after supper each night (bringing anything we had from the day to the garage and putting it in the blue or black box), she sweeps and washes the table. That all said, she sometimes needs reminders which bin items go in, need to be refocused and well, lets face it the sweeping and table washing is all for show - we have to come along after her for it to be fully done.

Kids are capable of so much more then we typically give them credit for. We figure that if we expect our daughter to do her share of housework in the coming years she needs to be doing it now...while she finds it fun and to instill that habit/expectation.