Are you looking for your child to be successful? Give them chores!
Many of the clients that come to my office know that I'm a supporter of children's chores. Not only because of the effect they have on their self-esteem and their self-concept but also due to the largest longitudinal study made by Harvard. The study showed that people need two things to be successful in life:
1) Love
2) Work Culture
The investigation included people like President Kennedy and many more outstanding individuals. The conclusion was that all of them had completed some kind of chore, responsibility since they were very young. Julie Lythcott- Haims, ex dean of Stanford and author of the book “How to raise an Adult” used this study to claimed that professional success in life is fully associated with the chores that we take as children.
Therefore, she suggests that, from a very early age, we help to generate a mentality filled with effort, self-esteem, capacity, personal worth, that lead to a good work culture.
How can we do that? By giving kids "chores and jobs" at home.
Yes, I know that you are thinking that this is going to give you as parents more work to do here and now (although if we meditate it a bit longer, we could all benefit from more responsible children in the long-term). It's great to help your children understand the value of things. It's good for them to realize that in order to achieve goals, one need to put a lot of effort, perseverance, and hard work.
This gives us a great opportunity to "coach" them, and explain them step by step how to carry tasks forward. We can divide a process in in small parts to generate a domain and satisfaction of the "I can". Long-term speaking it produces a proactive, and collaborative attitude that tends to improvement, which is what everyone look for in a work environment and is what we call today as "growth mindset".
Here you can find a table with suggestions:
Below you can find a link of the lecture of Julie Lythcott- Haims.
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