Giving chores to toddlers might sound crazy – they’re too young, right?? In my opinion, absolutely not. There are lots of little chores that young kids can participate in and I’m sharing my favourite three:
1// helping ‘set’ the table before meals.
Before meals, I ask Bear to find his water bottle and to put it on the table (about 75% of the time he does, so not bad odds at all lol). I also hand him his bib and ask him to put it on the table for me.
2// nap time / bed time cleanup.
Before heading upstairs for his nap or bath time, I ask Bear to help me put away his toys.
(putting away the toys sometimes turns into playing with them lol)
We collect the big Lego pieces and put away the stuffed animals. Kiel and I don’t keep a bunch of toys everywhere so this helps a lot, plus I have a place for everything, making this whole process easier. On the bookshelf in the living room, we have a Mega Bloks tub, along with 2 wicker baskets (1 for books and 1 for smaller toys), his tool set goes on the shelf and then larger toys like the popping roller, Tonka truck, etc go in the large fabric bin we have.
3// Swiffering the floor!
Bear LOVES our Swiffer – yay me! He turns it on and wanders around the kitchen, sweeping up crumbs in the process. This isn’t really a chore since I don’t ask him to help, he just enjoys playing with it. Another option (and a cuter option) is to remove the middle bar on a normal Swiffer, making it a mini version that is easy for little kids to manoeuvre. My dad made this little one for him when we were visiting my parents and Bear loved playing with it so much, we brought it home. The cutest thing is when he bends down to get underneath couches lol!
My son is 19 months old, so ‘chore’ is a term I use loosely, but he loves to help out and is really proud of himself when he does. There are some days where none of this happens and that’s totally fine too, he’s a little kid and we understand completely. I think giving tots the responsibility of helping out builds confidence and is a fun way to slowly introduce things like chores 🙂
Are there any little jobs that your munchkins do around the house? I would love to hear them in the comments below!
