How Old Do Kids Need to Be to . . . ?

Last weekend, as I was preparing to mow the lawn for the first time this spring, my wife mentioned that she thought our oldest son was ready to begin helping with the mowing. I was initially surprised by her comment because our son is only nine-year-old and I just wasn’t sure he was ready to handle the mower (to be honest, I hadn’t really even thought about it). The more I thought about it, the more the idea made sense though. He is nine, he is big enough to push the mower around and after some simple instruction he was able to turn it as needed. As my son made his way around the backyard for the first time, I really started thinking that it might be time to give all of my children more responsibility, more independence, and more chores.

Now I am wondering how old kids should be for certain household tasks and chores. How old do kids need to be to do their own laundry, for example? I know my kids are old enough to clean up their rooms and to put their laundry away, set the table and put their dirty dishes in the dishwasher, but what about bigger tasks. At seven and nine are more boys ready for the lawn? Are they ready for laundry? Can the wash the car? Can they sweep and mop, run the vacuum, help make dinner? I just don’t know. My wife and I have exposed our boys to most of the chores listed above, but when should they become full time chores?

Last night, my wife had the boys matching socks, folding them together and putting them away. Although this should be fairly easy (much easier than mowing the lawn), the boys struggled. I can’t decide if they were really struggling or they just didn’t want to do it. I could use some direction here. How old do kids need to be to do . . .?