Our 3 year old has become a helper. Always asking if he can help with something. He asks to help cook, asks to help with cleaning. He wants to help me run the bath and he wants to load the washing machine. He often wants to help with things that aren’t too safe for him though, such as stirring the pots, boiling the kettle or pushing the lawn mower with Dad. However I feel I can’t keep saying no to him. He really wants to help and I should start to embrace that and reward it.
Today I asked him to pull the bin up the drive. He was thrilled to be asked. I then gave him some light bags to carry into the house. He then put a few things away in the fridge for me. He was so happy to be involved and obviously felt like a grown up. Here is my next question: Do I start to reward these little jobs at only 3 years old? Or do I let him do them and give him the praise he loves to get from Mum and Dad. Either way, I’m not complaining that he wants to be so helpful. Before I know it he won’t want to!
We’ve always had the girls help out with household chores as part of our normal routine – they help with the washing, dishwasher and cleaning and are expected to help tidy up at the end of the day. I wouldn’t reward them for doing it because I expect a certain base line as part of being a family member (I don’t reward Mr Muddling for putting his cup in the dishwasher in a similar manner)
That’s along the lines of what I was thinking, that helping out should be a normal behaviour and not something that they should automatically expect a reward for. Thank you for commenting!