What Chores Can A 3-Year Old Do?
I love a mess-free room.
A common battle in our house used to be trying to get Serophina to clean up her room. She’s almost four years old and she knows exactly where everything goes. We know that she can put her clothes away in her dresser, put her toys away in the toy bin, pick up her clothes off the floor and into the laundry basket, and pile her books on her desk.
Because we know she can do each of these things, we feel like it’s not too much to ask her to clean up her room. Yet, whenever we do, she ends up playing, looking at her books, or getting sidetracked in some other way.
One day I looked up age appropriate chores for children and cleaning up your room was not on the list for a three year old, or even a four year old or five year old!
According to this list, we shouldn’t expect her to clean up her room by herself until she was six years old.
There’s lots of other things she can do by herself and the latest job I’ve given her is feeding the dog twice a day. She does all these things and more wonderfully so I guess I shouldn’t complain.
We’re trying to create a habit to have her put away a toy or book right after she’s done using it, so that her room doesn’t turn into an unmanageable mess. It’s time consuming on our part, but what aspect of parenting isn’t? Hopefully it’ll work and eventually her room will stay clean for more than five minutes!
What chores do your kids do?
So far, our three-year-old clears his plate and cup after meals all by himself (unlike his dad). Nathan gets distracted like Serophina does, so leaving him to clean a room by himself is pointless. If I stay with him and give him specific instructions (put the blocks in their box, put your dirty clothes in the laundry basket), he can clean up fairly well. But it definitely requires supervision and constant redirection. Good luck with your cleaner!
Hi Brynn, welcome to Cuddlebugs! We also have to be in the room with her to make sure she stays on task. By the end she’s usually very proud of herself and that’s always a good feeling for her and us!