Consumer Trends | My Teen Voice

Use Chores to Develop a Good Work Ethic in Your Kids

Left to their own devices, your kids would probably spend all day watching TV, playing video games and texting with their friends. They might love to idle away the hours, but those lost afternoons of lazy indulgence won’t help them develop the kind of character that they need to become responsible adults. Those kids need some serious chores to teach them about responsibility.

Choosing Chores for Your Kids

You always want to choose chores that your kids can accomplish. Asking a three-year-old to mop the floor will only cause you more trouble.

If you have a young child, then ask her to put away her toys, put dirty clothes in the hamper and dust shelves that she can reach.

Slightly older kids can help around the house by making beds, helping in the garden and taking out the trash.

Once your children reach their teens, they can accept much more responsibility. Have them wash dishes, do their own laundry, wash the car or cut the grass. They might complain, but they can handle it.

Assigning Chores

You have to provide clear directions to children and teens. When you assign chores, make a chart showing exactly what each person needs to do this week. Be as specific as possible. If the chart says “rake the leaves,” then your son might leave piles all over the yard. Instead, write “rake and compost leaves.”

Make sure that you assign chores fairly. Kids need downtime and social lives as well as responsibility, so give them chores that will push them without making them feel miserable. After all, you need to help them develop more than just a work ethic.

Another Hole in Defense of Marriage Act

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If you believe arguments set forth by religious conservatives, then you probably also agree that households led by homosexual couples don’t offer good environments for children. In fact, you might have even heard that recent research has provided ample evidence supporting this claim.

Senator Al Franken wants to set the record straight by pointing to the actual study that representatives from Focus on the Family refer to when looking for objective evidence that there claims have merit.

Focus on the Family Can’t Get its Facts Straight

In a congressional hearing about the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), Senator Franken confronted a representative from Focus on the Family about findings in a study used to support the Defense of Marriage Act. Franken points out that the study claims children living in “their own married biological or adoptive mothers and fathers were generally healthier and happier” than children living in other family types.

When Franken asked the Focus on the Family representative if he believed the study excluded homosexual couples, the rep claimed that he believed the study focused on the benefits offered by heterosexual couples.

What the Study Really Says

Unfortunately for the representative, Franken had actually read the story and knew that the definition of “nuclear family” used in the study did not exclude those led by homosexual couples. The study claimed that children benefitted from any type of nuclear family, including those led by same-sex parents.

As more people in the U.S. become convinced that homosexual couples deserve the same rights as heterosexual couples, the argument used by Focus on the Family continues to lose credence. Now the American people find that the evidence used to support DOMA doesn’t even say what they said it said.

Do you think DOMA has any relevance to protecting the rights of people in America, or does it only limit rights by discriminating against certain families?