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Young teens and Chores??

Crazystepmom12's picture

Question for those of you who had either had/has bios or steps that are/were young teens 13-14 in the last ten years. I'm not asking what you did as a teen as I know Unfortunately times are different. 
 

So my question is what are Reasonable Chores for a 13 year old???  Plus do they get paid and how much? 
 

What basic things should a "normal" 13 yr old be expected to do without getting paid?

BethAnne's picture

This is so subjective that basically you just have to work out what you want to happen in your home and find a way to make it happen. Everyone is going to have a different answer.

At 13, as long as they have been shown how to do a task, I am not sure there is much a bright child could not do around the house. Cooking complex meals might be a challenge to a lot of them, but most could manage something simple if they have been shown how. Obviously you need to cater to the individual child and their maturity level.

Personally I don't like the money for chores deal, except perhaps for occasionally if the chore is one the child would not normally do or if they child wants 'earn" some money for a specific purpose you could find some extra chores for them to do. To me things like deep cleaning, a lot of yard work, cleaning the car, organising the garage, helping to decorate a room etc would come into this category. If they do some babysitting of younger siblings I might also include this in things that they get paid for.

To me no one is going to pay you to do chores in the future (unless you take it up professionally I suppose) and once money is offered, the child can just decide that they don't care about the money and would rather not do the chores. Then what do you do? I would rather just expect that they contribute to the household because that is what people who live together do. I am not against giving the child money in the form of an allowance though so that they can learn to manage their own money. This way the money can be witheld in extreame circumstances for bad behavior or poor school performance etc if a consequence is needed. 

beebeel's picture

If my sks wanted to earn money as teens, they mowed the lawn, washed windows or helped with big projects. They did not get paid for doing their own laundry or washing dishes/taking out the garbage. 

SteppedOut's picture

At that age my son kept his room reasonably clean, cleaned his bathroom once a week, dishes and kitchen sweeping every other night, vacuumed once a week (living room and hall or stairs and family room) and garbage out as needed (because you suffer great pain in my house if you overfill the damn garbage). Oh, he also helped with dinner prep if I had a late day at work or had to stop on my way home for something. Once he started driving, I would send him on errands (return stuff to stores, UPS, grocery shopping) - I bought him a car/paid his insurance/gas. Ooooh. Mow and weed help while I also was doing it. 

Now, for those clutching their pearls at that list - he had time for school, extra curricular activities AND plenty of free time. 

My formerSO's son...didn't do a damn thing. He couldn't even put his dirty dishes in the dishwasher. But then, he didn't even use silverware when eating. Or use toilet paper for the love of God. I mean, sometimes he remembered to flush the toilet... 

(My son was off to college and they were not living in my house.)

Cover1W's picture

I know right, like they don't have time?  I had full time high school, a part time job, a sport after school, plus doing my own laundry, helping with dinner a couple times a week, helping clean the house in general, taking care of my car (and paying for the gas/upkeep), etc. I used to have a horse too, so on top of that I had barn chores.  And I didn't die of 'too much work!' FFS I cannot even ask that YSD be responsible for brining in the mail from the box 15 feed from our front stairs...the horror!