Part 3: Age Appropriate Chores For Pre-Teens & Teens
Chores For Your Pre-Teen
Eleven and Twelve Year-Olds
By the time your child reaches their pre-teen stage they are doing many things on their own. This is the age where you should expect your son and daughter to start doing their own laundry. You can still supervise them to make sure they use the right amount of soap and select the right setting, but for the most part, it is a chore they can handle on their own.
Pre-teens can also do the following things themselves:
- Dust wood furniture
- Vacuum and mop all rooms
- Change light bulbs
- Change their bed sheets
- Do more yard work, such as pulling weeds or mowing the lawn
- Preparing simple family meals
- Cleaning windows and mirrors
- Doing the dishes without help
Chores for your Teenagers
When you have teenagers in your home, you are starting to prepare them for adulthood. You want to teach them as many basic skills as you can before they reach 18, so that by the time they go to college or move out on their own, they know how to take care of themselves and their home properly. This is done through various chores around the house.
13 Year-Olds
For 13 year-olds, you want to start introducing them to life skills, in addition to the chores they have already been doing. Of course keep having them make their bed each morning, do the dishes, and continue working on their own laundry. However, they should also start doing some things they will need to handle on their own as an adult, such as replacing the bag in the vacuum cleaner, ironing their clothes, mowing the lawn, and possibly even doing some minor repairs around the house. Aside from changing a light bulb, a 13 year-old can also help with things like hammering nails, as long as they have supervision.
14 and 15 Year-Olds
Continuing with these type of lessons, have your 14 and 15 year-olds do more home chores as well. For example, you can have your son start preparing more elaborate meals from recipes he finds and have him do the grocery shopping for ingredients. You can let your daughter start babysitting for neighbor kids or wash the outdoor windows in your home. These are life skills that help your teens take care of themselves.
16 and Up
By the time your teens reach 16 or 17 years old, they should be doing everything you are doing. This includes being able to clean out the refrigerator, do any housework or yard work, wash cars, make a grocery list and shop on their own, and do deep cleaning around the house. This is also a good age to start teaching your teens about financial budgeting.
Continue introducing new chores to your kids each week and add to the chore chart. They shouldn’t be doing all household duties, but helping out so they can learn how to do things on their own. By the time your teens move out of the house, you feel confident they know what they are doing.
Be sure to get your chore tracking/responsibility chart I spoke about in Part 1. We love this Magnetic Chore Responsibility Chart. It comes with an 8 pack of liquid chalk markers that allow you to color coordinate it for each child or each chore, whatever works for your family.
Of course if this isn’t what you’re looking for there are so many options for chore charts – I am sure you’ll find something that’ll work in your home.
These are good suggestions. Kids aren’t always as good as the adults at the chores, and then sometimes a parent just gives up, as for a while it can be more work. But keep at it, developing a sense of responsibility in kids this age is helpful for them later. A good foundation.
I think it’s really important to teach kids responsibility. I make sure my kids keep their rooms clean and help with household chores.
Wow, some great ideas here. I didn’t delegate chores enough when I was a parent but will show this to my daughter who is trying to do this with her sons, thanks!
My niece and nephews live across the street and they are big helps to me. If I don’t ask them to do things on this list it’s likely because I’m a control freak, lol. They’re definitely capable of these things