I pull a paper from the file and instinctively snap to attention. It’s a chore chart in file number 626 of my dad’s home archives. It’s labeled Household Activities.
And, there we are—seven of us kids, minus the baby, all lined across the top of the grid, with the days of the week anchoring the left side.
We grew up on these charts, a new one appearing every month or so to provide variety and to increase challenge as we grew. The bottom corner dates this one as May 25, 1969. I was 14 years old then, taking on so many household tasks that for Saturday, my part includes All Sorts of Stuff.
This work was not for allowance, not for rewards, not for extra money. We worked because we lived in that house—ate at the table, dirtied the dishes, slept in the beds, filled the hamper with dirty clothes, and tracked in mud.
My parents had a mantra: If you live in a house, you contribute to that house.
And these chores, the bane of our childhoods, eased our emergence into adulthood. It was no surprise to us that some things, boring things, had to be done over and over. And then again. That some work, like washing diapers, is distasteful. That ignoring work doesn’t make it go away.
In an 86-year multigenerational study, Harvard researchers evaluated the backgrounds of over 700 “high achievers.” They found a strong connection between household chores and later professional success. My parents never read this study. They didn’t need to.
Having grown up on a farm, they already knew the value of a communal effort. They knew it taught kids to work as a team, to handle challenge, to manage time, and to develop grit and determination.
And happiness.
The Harvard study shows a strong connection between doing chores and later professional and personal happiness. Shared responsibility, the study says, helps kids develop greater self-worth, confidence, and empathy for others.
File 626 in my dad’s archives holds a stack of chore charts, proof that my parents were as smart at raising kids as any Harvard professor.
