Your child grumbles about washing dishes after dinner, dramatically sighs while folding laundry, and acts like making their sandwich is an impossible task. You might wonder if all the nagging is worth it. What if those mundane household battles are shaping something far more valuable than a clean kitchen?
New research reveals that children who take on household responsibilities develop skills that extend far beyond maintaining a tidy home. Scientists have discovered a surprising connection between everyday chores and the cognitive abilities that predict future success. But here’s where it gets interesting: not all chores are created equal, and some tasks that seem beneficial might not provide the brain-boosting benefits you’d expect.
Science Backs What Parents Already Knew: Chores Build Character

Researchers from La Trobe University decided to examine what many parents have long suspected: that household chores do more than keep homes functional. Their study, published in the Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, surveyed 207 parents of children aged 5 to 13 to understand the relationship between chore participation and cognitive development.
Parents answered detailed questions about their children’s household responsibilities and executive functioning abilities. Researchers divided chores into three distinct categories: self-care tasks, such as preparing meals, family-care activities, including preparing food for others, and pet-care responsibilities, including feeding and walking family animals.
What emerged from this data would surprise even the researchers themselves.
Brain Power Through Dish Power: Executive Functions Explained
Executive functions serve as the brain’s air traffic control system, managing multiple cognitive processes that determine how well children plan, focus, and solve problems. These skills include working memory (holding and manipulating information), inhibition (controlling impulses and maintaining focus), and task switching (moving attention between different activities).
These abilities prove crucial for academic success and workplace performance later in life. Children with stronger executive functions tend to earn better grades, exhibit improved reading and math skills, and display superior problem-solving abilities. Research has linked early executive function development to a range of outcomes, including college enrollment rates and financial stability in adulthood.
Chores naturally exercise these mental muscles because they require planning sequences of actions, remembering multiple steps, and switching attention between different tasks. When a child makes breakfast, they must remember the steps, manage timing, and adjust their approach when things don’t go as planned.
Making Your Sandwich vs Making Family Dinner: Two Types Win

The La Trobe study produced clear winners in the chore category competition. Children who regularly performed self-care tasks and family-care responsibilities showed significantly better working memory and inhibition skills compared to those who didn’t participate in these activities.
Self-care chores included activities such as organizing belongings for school, preparing their snacks, and keeping their bedrooms tidy. Family-care tasks involved setting tables, helping with groceries, and preparing meals for other family members. Both categories required children to plan, follow multi-step processes, and take responsibility for outcomes.
“Self-care chores and family-care chores significantly predicted working memory and inhibition, after controlling for the influence of age, gender, and presence or absence of a disability,” the researchers reported. These findings remained consistent even when accounting for individual differences among children.
The data showed that engagement in both types of chores explained additional variance in cognitive abilities beyond what could be attributed to natural development or individual characteristics.
Pet Chores Don’t Count: The Surprising Exception That Puzzles Researchers
Here’s where the study took an unexpected turn. Despite researchers’ expectations, children who cared for family pets showed no improvement in executive functioning compared to children without pet responsibilities. Tasks such as walking dogs, feeding cats, and cleaning litter boxes did not produce the cognitive benefits observed with other household activities.
This finding surprised the research team, who had anticipated that animal care would provide similar benefits to other chores. They proposed two possible explanations for this unexpected result.
First, pet-related tasks might lack the complexity needed to challenge developing brains. Pouring kibble into a bowl or filling a water dish requires fewer planning steps than cooking a meal or organizing school supplies.
Second, children might perceive pet care differently than traditional chores. Playing with a dog or cuddling a cat feels more like fun than work, which may potentially reduce the cognitive challenge that drives skill development.
Harvard’s 80-Year Study Agrees: Work Ethic Starts at Home

The Australian findings align with decades of research on childhood development and adult success. Harvard’s Grant Study, the longest-running longitudinal study in history, identified two key factors that enable adults to achieve happiness and success: love and work ethic.
Julie Lythcott-Haims, former dean of freshmen at Stanford University, explained the Harvard findings in her research on childhood development. She noted that having done chores as a child served as a significant predictor of adult work ethic and professional success.
“The earlier you started, the better,” Lythcott-Haims explained. “A roll-up-your-sleeves-and-pitch-in mindset, a mindset that says, there’s some unpleasant work, someone’s got to do it, it might as well be me … that’s what gets you ahead in the workplace.”
This perspective transforms household chores from daily battles into investments in future character development.
From Folding Laundry to Career Ladders: The Workplace Connection
The cognitive skills that chores develop translate directly to professional environments. Adults who learned to plan, organize, and complete tasks as children bring those abilities to their careers. They approach projects with better time management, handle multiple responsibilities more effectively, and persist through challenging assignments.
Working memory skills enable employees to juggle competing priorities and recall essential details across various projects. Inhibition abilities would allow professionals to stay focused during meetings, resist distractions, and think before responding to challenging situations. Task-switching capabilities enable workers to transition smoothly between various responsibilities throughout their day.
“It is possible that parents may be able to facilitate their child’s executive function development through encouraging participation in chores, whereas chore-based interventions may also be used to target deficits in ability,” the researchers concluded.
Age Matters: When to Start and What to Expect

The study revealed essential patterns about how chore participation changes with age. Younger children (ages 5-7) typically handle simpler self-care tasks, such as putting laundry in hampers and making snacks. Older children (ages 11-13) assumed more complex responsibilities, including meal preparation and household chores.
Gender differences also emerged in the data. Girls participated in more household tasks overall, particularly activities like making beds, preparing meals, and caring for family members. Boys were more likely to handle tasks such as taking out the garbage and running errands.
These patterns suggest that families should introduce age-appropriate responsibilities gradually, building complexity as children develop greater capabilities. Starting with simple self-care tasks allows young children to experience success while developing foundational skills.
Additional Benefits Parents Should Know
Research has documented numerous benefits of choir participation beyond executive function development. Children who contribute to household maintenance report increased feelings of autonomy and greater life satisfaction. They develop stronger prosocial behaviors and show improved cooperation with family members.
Chore participation also builds self-confidence as children master new skills and contribute meaningfully to family functioning—this sense of competence transfers to other areas of life, including academic performance and social relationships.
Children who take on responsibilities at home learn that their actions have an impact on others, developing empathy and consideration for their family members. They understand that household functioning requires the participation of everyone, fostering a community-minded approach that benefits them throughout their lives.
Making Chores Work

Successfully implementing chore systems requires matching tasks to children’s developmental capabilities while maintaining realistic expectations. Parents should start with simple responsibilities and gradually increase complexity as children demonstrate mastery.
Creating consistent routines helps children internalize expectations and develop habits. Rather than viewing chores as punishment, families can frame them as meaningful contributions to household functioning. Children who understand how their efforts benefit the family show greater willingness to participate.
Patience proves essential during the implementation process. Children will initially require guidance and reminders as they learn new skills. Parents who resist the temptation to complete tasks themselves allow children to develop independence and confidence.
Small Tasks, Big Future Impact
The research reveals that seemingly mundane household tasks serve as powerful tools for developing the cognitive skills that predict lifelong success. Children who prepare their meals, help with family responsibilities, and contribute to household functioning develop executive abilities that transfer to academic and professional environments.
While pet care might not provide the same cognitive benefits, it still teaches responsibility and empathy. Dogs need walks and cats need feeding, regardless of their impact on brain development.
Parents facing daily battles over chores can take comfort in knowing that their persistence serves a greater purpose. Each completed task builds cognitive abilities that will serve children throughout their lives. Those arguments about making beds and washing dishes are investments in future success.
Start small, stay consistent, and remember that today’s reluctant dishwasher might become tomorrow’s accomplished professional.
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