A survey of U.S. parents found that that 80% of children today don't do household chores. Turn back the hands of time to the frontier times of the 19th century and you'll find that not only were children expected to contribute to the day-to-day running of the household by doing chores that included chopping wood, fetching water, working the land, churning butter, hunting, sewing and making candles. So why don't kids today do chores? Sometimes it's because parents remember how much they hated doing chores when they were younger. Then there are those parents who feel guilty about all the time they spend working, and finally there are parents who believe it's easier to hire somebody than to force their kids to do chores. According to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, doing chores teaches children time management and organization skills, as well as helping to establish responsibility within the family structure. Experts say parents who don’t give their children chores — or end up doing them because their kids are too busy — are robbing them of the opportunity to build character. Learning to contribute to the needs of the family as a child produces adults who are better employees, friends, and partners. The byproduct of teaching children how to function within a group through the completion of household chores is that they actually end up learning how to meet their needs and those of others. Eventually, our children will leave home, and not knowing how to feed themselves and maintain a clean, pleasant environment is a costly and grim prospect. So, whether you haven’t started at all or your efforts have been less than stellar, giving your child the responsibility of completing chores is one of the best things you can do for their development.