[twitter]Apart from setting the table, and tidying up their bedrooms and playroom, our boys have it easy.
I’d like them to get involved in some after dinner clean-up, but my wife laments they have a lifetime of dishes ahead of them and besides, they’re too short and our kitchen is too small.
Still, our boys could use with some more chores to help around the house. If you buy in to kids pulling their weight, but struggle to get them to pitch in, a study has been done to find out exactly how to get the kids to help. Help is the key thing here, call them your helper.studied 150 kids between three and six, and asked them for help . . . using different phrases, to see which one was the most effective.
When they said things like, “Some children choose to be helpers” or “You could be a helper if someone has a job for you,” the kids were more likely to do the chores than when the researchers asked them for help.
The researchers say “when you use the noun ‘helper’, [it’s] a description that points to a child’s basic character and identity, [so] they’re more motivated to prove that it’s true.”