For most kids, the word chore isn’t a pleasant one. There’s a reason children are prone to temper tantrums when you ask them to do even the easiest of tasks. But instead of staving off the tantrum and doing the task yourself, it’s best to hold your ground. It turns out kids who do chores turn out to be more successful adults.
“By making them do chores – taking out the garbage, doing their own laundry – they realise I have to do the work of life in order to be part of life,” Julie Lythcott-Haims, former dean of freshmen at Stanford University and author of How to Raise an Adult told Tech Insider.
“If kids aren’t doing the dishes, it means someone else is doing that for them,” Lythcott-Haims said at a TED Talks Live event about her research. “And so they’re absolved of not only the work but of learning that work has to be done and that each one of us must contribute for the betterment of the whole.”
Lythcott-Haims also believes children who grow up doing chores will be better employees who have the skills to collaborate with coworkers and will be more empathetic towards others.
You can watch Lythcott-Haims’ full TED Talk below.
This article originally appeared on InStyle Australia.
