We don't know about you, but we could use a little help around the house just about every day. Life is crazy sometimes, and between kids, work, grocery shopping, laundry, self-care, and the five million other things we have to do, it would be nice if someone took some of this burden. Kids, we are talking to you. For the record, we are not your employees; we are your mothers, and you need to chip in around the house. But at what age can we realistically expect our kids to help? You might be shocked at the answer.
Sophie Zee is a child development specialist, and she gets the kids started on chores early, and we mean really early. She posted a now-viral clip on TikTok of her 10-month-old son learning to do chores, and it is pretty incredible. Sophie, you've got our attention. What do we have to do?
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Kids learn by watching.
We already knew that kids are sponges. They literally begin mimicking us when they are teeny-tiny babies, but it doesn’t have to just be things like clapping their hands or using a spoon — we can get them into the groove of real-world skill training when they are babies.
Sophie, who posts on the app as @schoolpsych.mom, captioned her video, “Let your baby & kids watch/help with your daily chores. Even if it takes a bit longer or is a bit messier, it’s so important for their development, and they enjoy it!”
Her son is totally into helping her.
Sure, it takes some patience and a bit more time, but the quick clip shows him stirring food in a pot, turning on the washing machine, and even placing dirty dishes in the dishwasher. The text on the video explains that she associates the chores with play and that her toddler has fun doing them.
It is pretty darn impressive, and honestly, it makes us wish we had done this a bit sooner with our own kids.
Lots of parents loved her idea.
Her viral video has been viewed 511,000 times and the comments section was totally blown away by the little guy’s ability. One parent asked for tips.
“Can you teach us how to teach them? ,” they wrote.
Sophie replied, “Of course ❤️ I’ll try to make a video. But you just bring them along with you when you do things so they can watch. They’re sponges and soak everything up. Then let them try little parts ❤️❤️.”
Parents vowed to do the same.
One mom wants her son to be independent, commenting: “I’m definitely teaching my son this because i can’t stand men that think chores are a womans responsibility and my mom never let us do anything i had to learn when i got married at 23 .”
There are a lot of parents who already have their kids doing chores.
Sophie’s little guy isn’t the only one helping around the house.
This mom wrote: “My 9 month old loves watching/helping me clean especially when I load/unload the dish washer! I love making the daily tasks around the house more fun for the two of us .”
“I did this with my 6 adult kiddies,” another mom explained. “They were helping me from the time they were just a few weeks old. Engaging with them while doing mundane tasks like folding sox ~ they’d play with 1 while I folded.”
Some wished they had these kinds of skills.
“Youre a great parent i wish my parents had done this w me ,” one person commented.
Another person agreed: “Then there was 18 yr old me: never being allowed to do a whole task so I had to learn everything myself (before the internet even).”
Sophie left an encouraging word, ” I’m sorry. Def has been an era of helicopter parenting and when people didn’t realize how much kids are capable of if you let them try.”
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As always, there were the Debbie downers in the group.
Some just had to be obtuse.
Like this person who wrote, “Having a baby do the laundry is wild .”
And this one: “Cant start soon enough, if you want to raise a Child labourer .”
Sophie, we love this idea and will be sharing tips with all our friends. It’s never too soon to learn how to help mom around the house. We all need it.
