What responsibilities do you give...?

[daisychainrose]

...a 5 year old?
What work/help do they do around the house?
What are their responsibilities and how do you handle if they don't keep to them?

My DD is 5 and seems to want to do more to help around the house and general "more things / responsibilities ".
Just wondering what has worked at that age ?
Tidying playroom seems to be hit and miss.
Getting their own breakfast ends up with milk all over the counter tops but I persist.
Buttering sandwiches is fine.....
Getting their clothes/ uniform ready for the morning goes well....

Anything else ?

I was surprised how easily my 5 year old could put away his own pile of laundry

he also makes his own drinks - very little spills now (he makes for his little sister too)

I have been trying to focus on habits rather than formal chores eg coat on hook (lowered hook) shoes in cupboard etc.

I’ve put labels on all his toy boxes with pictures of what belongs in there. It’s definitely helped with tidying away toys.

Dirty clothes in laundry basket, clean clothes away. Setting the table for dinner,

Dishwasher - cutlery drawer a good start, nothing will break

My six year olds jobs are putting away his clothes (with me in the room to help) and he is on shoe duty, so whenever we all come home and shoes are off it’s his job to put them away.

My D's is 5 and we get him to set the table at meals. He also scrapes his own plate and puts it in the sink. Tidying up is a joint effort and getting dressed when I'm not rushing out the door goes quite well if I can get him to not get distracted!

It doesn't sound like much to me, but he quite frequently exclaims that he has to do everything and that I ask him to do all of the chores

Poor love is so over worked

I think it's important that they do things for the family community, not just for themselves. So setting the table. Helping with pet care. Cooking. Tidying community spaces, not just playroom/bedroom.

Poor wee lamb with such slave driver parents. Is childline still a thing, I will send him their number.

@LadyDanburysHat if you could pass the number on I'm sure he'd appreciate it.

Although he needs to be clearer on his terminology - I was very confused recently when he told me I was hurting him when I asked him to do something for the 485748384th time or the telly was going off. Cue big exasperated sigh and explanation: "mummy, you're hurting my feelings!"

Collect and return waste paper baskets from all round the house the day before bin day.

At that age mine really enjoyed using the washing machine with supervision. They'd help load the machine, I'd put a scoop of powder in, then they would press all the buttons to set and start it. Came in really handy when I was away one weekend and DS2 (then age 4) was able to tell DH the correct settings to wash darks and lights on 🤣

Mine would tidy/organize the shoes and coats at the weekend so we were organized for the new week. They really liked pairing up the shoes and would chat to them about not getting lost from each other.

Then there were lots of little jobs they did in conjunction with me, so I could oversea (and head off problems at the pass). So stuff like clearing your plate after the meal and some dishwasher unloading. Helping me with sorting laundry into peoples piles, pairing socks and learning how to fold towels and tshirts etc. there was usually much giggling about how big Daddys socks and underpants were. Tidying their rooms and the playroom usually needed some specific instructions, like pick up all the lego and put it in this box, and then come and find me for your next job…

At that age I encouraged them to participate in as much of what I was doing as possible. So if I was cleaning bathrooms they might have a go at the bathtub or help clean the playroom or help me fold clothes.

We have always worked together as a team and as they got older their ability to do tasks improved. Participation gave them a chance to chat and allowed them to see they were part of the team rather than alone doing tasks by themselves.

They are older teens now and very self sufficient in many ways.

When my 5 year old was a bit younger he loved helping me unload the dishwasher - he'd take them out and pass them to me and I'd put them away. But its DD's job now so he can't help me with that any more but its def a good one for this age.
He has to put away his hats, gloves, woolly socks etc. when coming inside, and tidy up his toys obviously.
This autumn I gave him the job of picking up the rotten apples from under the apple tree and he was very good at that job as he was motivated by money to save up for a toy (I paid him per bag he filled up, though he tried to take the piss by only half filling the bags ) and picking the redcurrants growing in our garden.

When my ds was very little, he decided his job was posting all the family's shoes out through the cat flap every morning, which he did very industriously. Charming but unhelpful..