Should You Assign Chores for 10 Year Olds? Complete Age-appropriate List Included
Parenting is difficult and don’t let anyone make your feel guilty for not always getting it right.
A common area of concern is how to implement age-appropriate discipline and responsibilities at home. Let’s discuss how to approach topics like chores for 10 year olds to help you make decisions that benefit all involved.
Finding balance in parenting strategies is a challenge most families face. Are you being too strict or not strict enough? Are you allowing too much screen time and how will you get your kids to eat more vegetables? And then there’s the challenge of teaching your kids values such as being accountable and taking up responsibility.
Chores are integral in this process but when do you start and how do you start? Does assigning chores for 10 year olds represent a balanced parenting approach?
Below we share some insightful information that’s valuable for anyone with kids in the house. While we focus on facts about kids that are around 10 years of age, we’ll also cover the use of chores with other age groups.
Should You Give Your 10-Year-Old Chores to Do?
Your parental instinct to protect your children may want to shield them from all hardships—even house chores. But it’s actually beneficial to give children responsibilities and their abilities at this age mean they may be able to take on more than you give them credit for.
From your child’s point of view, they’ll have the following advantages:
- Feel valued: If you assign chores for 10 year olds and also communicate about how their efforts are making your life easier, kids can feel a sense of pride. It’s important to praise your child and show them that you value them, even while they’re busy, not only once they complete the task. This will help keep momentum but also communicate that you value their willingness, not only their perfect completion of an assigned chore.
- Build confidence: When you assign chores for 10 year olds you’re actually telling them they’re good enough to be trusted with something. Realizing this, they may become more confident in other circumstances in life. For example, they may start volunteering more at school and perform in various areas because you’re showing them their capabilities at home.
- Practice skills: Here we’re talking about practical skills they’ll need during their lifetime, such as knowing how to properly clean a bathroom or bedroom. In addition, they can become better at life skills such as planning their day so they finish tasks on time, or learning how to prioritize between responsibilities for school, home chores and fun activities like sports. Even if you talk about these types of skills, they’ll only learn them once you give them an opportunity to implement it.
Do Chores for 10 Year Olds Require Payment?
Many parents wonder about rewards systems for doing chores. While payment or privileges can motivate youngsters to finish their chores, it also carries the risk of them feeling entitled to receiving a benefit whenever they take on a responsibility. During their adult lives this won’t always be the case so it’s best if they learn to perform their duties whether they’ll get something in return or not.
A healthy balance in this regard is to expect general chores to be done, whether you pay your kids pocket money or not. However, you can offer them payment or other benefits—such as buying a toy they really want—if they take on responsibilities over and above your general expectations.
At What Age Can Kids Start Doing Chores?
Parents are often surprised to realize that even at a young age of 2, many kids have enough physical and mental abilities to start performing chores around the house. What’s more, at such a young age children are often very willing to help, because they enjoy seeing parents satisfied with their actions.
Of course, you want your smaller kids to enjoy their childhoods as much as possible, but there’s nothing wrong with teaching skills and responsibilities early on.
Age Groups for Assigning Chores
Give yourself peace of mind that the chores you assign to your kids are appropriate for their skill sets and won’t put them at risk in any way. The following list gives some clarity on this topic.
| Age group | Skills | Example of appropriate chores |
| 2 – 3 | Understands chores related to themselves mostly | Tidying room Food in pets’ bowls |
| 4 – 5 | Some precision and autonomy | Basic cleaning Helping with laundry sorting |
| 6 – 7 | Start using tools/appliances | Setting table Raking leaves |
| 8 – 9 | Can manage breakable items | Walk dog Load dishwasher |
| 10 – 11 | Able to learn in practice – requires instruction | Preparing meals Wash windows Fold laundry |
| 12+ (Teens and Tweens) | Understands responsibility Must learn how to look after themselves | DIY repairs Do own washing |
What are Normal Chores for 10 Year Olds?
Now, to plan the chores for 10 years olds in your household, pick appropriate ones from our lists below. Use this as an example though, because depending on your home’s layout and your habits there may be others you can add. Simply keep this age group’s skill and mental capacity in mind when listing chores.
Chores for Bedrooms
At this age your child can take up responsibility for most of the chores in the bedroom. Even younger kids can keep the room tidy by picking up toys and making the bed. Now you can add tasks like:
- Folding their own laundry
- Ironing some of the laundry that doesn’t require great skill
- Pack away their clothing after it’s ironed
- Make the bed but also change the sheets themselves once every 2 weeks
Gardening Chores
You can teach your child a love for nature by including gardening chores for 10 year olds. Even at a young age you can teach them to rake, pull out weeds and water the flowerbeds, so now you can involve them with more intricate work like:
- How to dig a hole for new plants, using a shovel that’s appropriate for their size
- Carefully planting new bulbs or seedlings
- Add fertilizer to the soil, ensuring they measure correctly and wash off any chemicals from their hands afterwards
Chores in the Kitchen
In the kitchen you can start trusting your 10 year old with cleaning and food preparation:
- Cooking simple meals while you supervise
- Unpacking the dishwasher
- Clean up the kitchen after dinner
General Chores
To help lighten the load for other family members, you can also ask 10 years olds to help with:
- Washing the car, after showing them how so they don’t scratch it
- Look after smaller kids while you’re in another part of the house
- Clean the bathroom
- Clean parts of the house, including washing windows
- Filling up pets’ bowls and bird feeders outside
- Look out for pests and report mouse droppings or slugs in the garden
- Painting projects outside, such as the garden wall
How to Best Manage Chores for 10 Year Olds (and Other Kids)
Experts will tell you that the key to managing chores for 10 year olds—or other age groups—effectively is not only choosing the right tasks, but how you package the arrangement. Here are handy tips to help:
- Don’t communicate chores as being boring and bothersome. Make them fun by turning them into games, especially with younger kids.
- Find a creative way to assign and manage chores, such as a DIY chore chart that everybody can make together.
- Be conscious of your own attitude when performing your chores, because younger kids will follow your lead.
- Allow some flexibility to give them a sense of control. For example, when dishing out the chores for 10 year olds or older kids, give them a must-do list but allow them to pick one task they actually enjoy.
- Give clear instructions and, especially with more complicated tasks, first do a chore with them before allowing them to do it on their own.
Also consider using chore trackers like Enzo (more below).
Enzo—Helpful Tool for Kids Chores Too
We’re so glad that thousands of people have already downloaded the Enzo chore tracker app. They can enjoy the user-friendly features that help manage home maintenance, bills and calendars between roommates or family members.
Can you use it for your kids too?
Definitely!
With kids, the following Enzo features are beneficial to both parents and kids, even for managing chores for 10 year olds:
- The younger generation often enjoys a tech option to a traditional one. So, to remind them of chores, use an app rather than a paper list against the bedroom wall.
- Working parents can keep track of completed tasks even when not at home and add chores on the go.
- Kids find it super fun to click on the app after completing a task.
- Ticking off each task brings a sense of accomplishment which helps your child build confidence.
- No one can say they weren’t aware of their responsibilities for the day.
With mobile phones being used by family members of all ages, Enzo can be easily accessible to everyone. And yes, you can download both Android and iOS versions!
