News, Advice, and Tips for Parenting Teenagers

Unlike in past decades, many modern parents don't require children and teenagers do household chores -- but according to Professor Markella Rutherford of Wellesley College, thats not a good development.

Dr. Rutherford went through over 300 parenting magazines printed between 1920 and 2006, and found a drastic shift in giving parents giving children chores to do. Previous generations thought of chores as a way to allow them to contribute to their families and communities and to teach them responsibility.

Until very recently, Dr. Rutherford wrote, "greater autonomy and responsibility were emphasized as antidotes to teenage listlessness and rebellion."

• Between 1920 and 1970, teenagers often cared for sick family members; planned, shopped for and cooked family meals; maintained the family car, and kept household accounts.
• However, between 1970 and 1990, parents attitudes changed and schoolwork became a childs only real responsibility.

"In the past, parents did not feel the need to bribe children because they were confident chores benefited their children by making them feel both responsible and an active part of family life," Dr. Rutherford wrote in her study, Childrens Autonomy and Responsibility: An Analysis of Child-Rearing Advice. "Children of the past would not have expected to be bribed because their parents taught them to take pride in a job well done."

Labels: parenting tips, chores, responsibility, research

Posted By: Aspen/CRC