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Giving My Son Chores Has Changed His Behavior
On January 1st, I took out a mason jar and cut up strips of paper. I told my eight-year-old son that whenever something good or exciting happens, we’ll write it down on a slip of paper and add it to the jar. At the end of 2025, we’ll read through the memories together. That night, my son wrote something down and put it into the jar, though I didn’t look at it until this morning.
Over the summer, I started using the apprenticeship model of parenting. While parenting consists of trial and error, I’ve managed to keep up with the basics of this model, which include giving my son a sense of responsibility and implementing chores. We have a chore list on our refrigerator, and while not every chore needs to be done daily, I put emphasis on certain duties. On Thursday mornings, I remind my son to take out the garbage, and he never complains. I try to help with the recycling when it gets overfull, but usually he stops me with “Mom, I’ve got it.”
I’ve found that my son gets excited if I tell him he’s in charge of something. A chore then feels like a fun challenge. On New Year’s Day, he wanted tacos for dinner. I told him he would be making them. His eyes got wide. “By myself?!” he asked, excitedly. “I’ll be here to explain what to do, but you’re going to do it yourself,” I told him.
