Friday 31 May 2019

Is Laundry at 8 too young?


​I am a Stay at home parent to two kiddos. Almost 8 and 3.My daughter will be 8 in June. She has minimal chores; she unloads the dishwasher, cleanse her room, makes her bed before school and folds her laundry on the days I do laundry. I feel all of these actions are reasonable things to ask of a kid her age.This past weekend, she changed her clothes ten times, threw it all in the laundry and complained about having nothing clean to wear. I had just done the wash for the weekend. I explained, "None of those clothes are dirty. Take them out, fold them up and put them away. You have plenty of clothes to pick from kiddo."She had a complete meltdown - kicking, screaming, howling. I couldn't talk to her without getting more screaming. I had to have my husband put her in her room. Eventually, she calmed down, came out and told me she still needs clean clothes. So I said, "Ok, I'll show you how to clean your clothes. This way you'll have clean clothes when you need, instead of based on when I do laundry for the household.""MOMMA NO" More screaming. Husband had to go sit with her for an hour to get her to chill out enough.My husband is MORTIFIED. He lectured ME on trying to pile too much responsibility on someone too young for it. Saying he had to cook, clean and was responsible for him and his dad's chores, that my doing laundry for four people at her age is unreasonable. That I should know better.I told him this is how kids learn to be functional people, by learning to care for things around the home. That I was going to be there every step of the way for her - loading, sorting (if necessary), how much soap to use, how to listen for when the machines are done.. He's unconvinced.He's not home with the kids as much as I am, and often says I'm too hard on her, expecting too much. I just want to raise competent people, man! via /r/Parenting http://bit.ly/2IcAbsx

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