As a parent, you look forward to the day when your kids are old enough to do chores around the house. Now that Donato is five-years old, we've been adding more tasks to his list. Besides picking up his toys, he helps us with laundry (transferring from hamper to washing machine, then transferring from machine to dryer...then helping with folding) and vacuuming (especially dust buster crumbs under table). A couple of weeks ago, he started putting his dishes in the sink...and the other day I handed him a sponge and asked him to wash all the plastic items. He was SO EXCITED. I gave him a quick lesson on how to scrub and watched him do his thing...
I realize he is going to start HATING chores at some point...so I'm enjoying his enthusiasm while it lasts. Although a lot folks support my decision to start him young with chores, some don't agree with another decision we've made. We don't give Donato an allowance yet. I never got an allowance growing up. My sister and I were EXPECTED to help Mom around the house...and if we didn't, we'd be grounded. Now that I'M a mother, I'm adopting a similar approach. We are holding off on giving Donato an allowance until he's a little older. Then, we will have him use that money to buy stuff he "wants."
There is no parenting manual. We're all doing the best we can when it comes to raising our kids to become responsible adults. It's trial and error...hopefully not too many errors.