Should children be made to do chores around the house?

Introduction

Conversation Summary

Many families require the children to do some kind of chores around the house such as cleaning, tidying, taking out the rubbish or washing up. However, the amount of chores that a child has to do can be very different. Some children will have virtually no chores to do whereas others fill a large part of their day doing different chores to help their parents.

When deciding whether children should be doing chores, or how many chores they should be doing, it is often a difficult decision for parents to make. The majority of parents want their children to appreciate the value of hard work, but they also want their children to enjoy their childhood.

Questions

• Did you do chores when you were a child?
• How old do you think children should be before they should start doing chores?
• What are the benefits of children doing chores to help the family?
• What can the negative effects be of children doing chores?
• What type of chores do you think are best for children to do?
• Do you think children should gradually do more chores as they get older?

Key Vocabulary

• Chore noun
• Tidy verb
• Take out phrasal verb
• Wash up phrasal verb
• Virtually adverb
• Majority noun
• Appreciate verb
• Value noun
• Childhood noun
• Gradually adverb