By at least some accounts, tasks like doing the laundry or cleaning up after dinner have fallen off kids’ to-do lists. In a Braun Research poll of 1,001 parents last year commissioned by Whirlpool, the appliance manufacturer, just 28 percent said they regularly assign chores to their kids, even though 82 percent said they grew up doing chores themselves.
It isn’t hard to imagine reasons for this shift. Tightly packed schedules can leave kids little time for housework — which, unlike calculus assignments or soccer practice, probably won’t influence college admissions decisions. Some parents may want to spare their children the drudgery they endured. Others may find that nagging kids to do their chores is more of a burden than they bargained for.
