Teaching your toddler responsibilities around the house

Two weeks ago,  there was a nation uproar over this photo that was posted on the Straits Times Stomp. In the photo, a domestic helper is seen trailing behind a young man in his army uniform while she was carrying his backpack. Needless to say, the comments came in like a flood slamming him for tarnishing the army’s image and questioning how the nation can depend on our army if we have soldiers who cant even carry their bags.

This led to a follow up article if we were raising a generation of softies. Link here.

The article was alluding that because the younger generation have been pampered by their domestic helper, parents or grand parents to carry their school bags, it has resulted in the sort of behavior displayed by the young solider.

But really, how can we make such comparisons between primary school kids and the solider in question? The school bags of some of these primary school kids can easily topple them over if they hurried their little feet along. And don’t even get me started on how their heavy bags can affect their back, posture, spine, leading to back pains, crooked spine… Surely there is no harm for an adult to lend a helping hand with their load. So yes, I am likely to be one of those parents who will help my kid with her mighty heavy bags in future.

But for now  I know my toddler is capable of, is learning to take responsibilities around the house. I actually find it rather amusing that my little daughter has a neat streak in her. Well for one, she frowns upon the crumbs on her dinner tray and would pick them up in between her meal and pass them to me to get it out of her sight. Sometimes she gets so distracted by it that she’ll demandfor a tissue to clean her tray when it gets too dirty.

Her Daddy, Daddy is interpreted as “Please clean this Daddy!”. Notice the impatience in her voice.

That aside, she’s learnt how to pack her toys, someday after m…u….c….. h persuasion. But I recently picked up a neat trick by using my kitchen timer to get her started on the cleaning up act. The idea was that once she hears the alarm go “beep, beep, beep”, she’ll keep her toys. And so far she’s been doing it without resistance and might I might with more enthusiasm than I expected. Oh what joy.

Other ways she enjoys helping out

• throwing the rubbish in the dustin
• putting her dirty clothes in the laundry basket
• bringing her own bowl to the dinner table

Meanwhile you can hop over to the Unclutterer to get more ideas on how you can get your toddler involved to teach them responsibilities around the home.

Oh yes, if you need some motivation to teach them how to be responsible, remember the earlier they start, the less time you have spend doing it for them.

Tagged: house work, toddler