When it comes to our children, all we want is what’s best for them. This can come in the shape of nurturing their happiness, expanding their horizons and encouraging them to be the best they can be.
Yet according to Julie Lythcott-Haims, author of the New York Times bestseller How To Raise An Adult and former Stanford University dean, when shaping the futures of our children, parents should ditch the “checklisted childhood” and focus their attention on two things a little closer to home…
“Our kids need to be a little less obsessed with grades and scores, and far more interested in childhood, providing a foundation for their success, building on things like love… and chores,” she said in a TED Talk.
Yes, your read correctly: chores.
Calling on the scientific research from one of the longest longitudinal studies of humans to date, the Harvard Grant study, Lythcott-Haims emphasises that success in one’s professional life comes down to doing chores as a child, claiming, “the earlier you start, the better.”
“That 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.”
The second element to a child’s success, as Lythcott-Haims points out, is none other than love.
“The most important finding from the Harvard Grant study said that happiness in life comes from love. Childhood needs to teach our children to love.”
While the difficulty of this may be getting your child to love doing chores, Lythcott-Haims asserts that teaching children the value of these two things will lead to success – no matter what they choose to do in life.
“We should be less concerned with a specific set of colleges they might be able to apply to or get into, and be far more concerned that they have the habits, the mindset, the skillset, the wellness to be successful wherever they go.”
