What if doing housework is actually bad for people?
I’m not sure what you mean by it being ‘bad’. Leading to unhappiness? As opposed to even more unhappiness due to a messy house?
It’s certainly something that people have to be trained into
I disagree with this in it’s generality. The ability to to household tasks needs to be trained. Establishment of the habit is another thing. An approach that leads to a relaxed approach to ‘chores’ depends on the motivational structure of the child (if you imply parenting).
An intrinsically motivated (on this kind of tasks) child will likely want to do the tasks if it clear that this is necessary to achieve it’s own goals. So if household tasks are routinely coupled to some things the child want/needs for itself like clothing of its choice, access to materials, support in its projects..., then it will do these tasks (as long as it doesn’t perceive the dependency as arbitrary, constructed, forced or unfair. Prototype example is my oldest son who has lots of projects for which he needs space and materials.
An extrinsically motivated child (more like my second oldest) can be influenced via frequent positive feedback for performing these tasks.
a lot of people resist doing [it]
Sure. I can confirm that my sons resist doing it in many circumstances. But the details differ widely.
No one does it for the fun of it.
Gamification is possible. Though not always. And it has a cost in terms of efficiency. But you don’t need fun to want to do it and feel satisfaction from completing it.
Doing housework isn’t the same thing as living in a clean orderly house—someone else might be doing the housework.
I’m not sure in what way doing housework might be bad for people, I’m just inclined to think that people’s instincts aren’t totally unreliable, and people tend to not like doing housework.
I’m not clear what you are driving at. Actually I wasn’t with your first comment either.
Doing housework isn’t the same thing as living in a clean orderly house—someone else might be doing the housework.
I agree. I think I see both aspects. I have household help and she isn’t doing everything—only big chunks like laundry. Big chunks that can’t only be done on the fly. I don’t mind doing dishes while talking in the kitchen. Actually with children many household tasks come kind of for free—there isn’t much else that can be done while caring for, teaching and in general looking after four boys. Many tasks also carry a lesson and sometimes even serve to avoid boredom on my side. Or are relaxing, But yes, not the tiring ones.
I think you two are a bit talking past each other. It is an entirely different question whether doing it is good for a child (I’d say yes, easy productive success and pride) or for an adult, especially a busy one i.e. whether a surgeon is better off doing the ironing after a hospital shift or should rather outsource it to hired help (I’d say the later).
Adult instincts are fairly reliable IMHO children’s instincts not so much.
Also, adults like it if they did nothing but work on the computer all day—it is satisfying to do something “real”.
Oh, they are very reliable … toward doing only those things that are really necessary. The genes don’t know whether the laundry is necessary. It might be it might be not. There will have been comparable tasks in the ancestral environment. It is adaptive to have a drive that looks for more potential.
I’m not sure what you mean by it being ‘bad’. Leading to unhappiness? As opposed to even more unhappiness due to a messy house?
I disagree with this in it’s generality. The ability to to household tasks needs to be trained. Establishment of the habit is another thing. An approach that leads to a relaxed approach to ‘chores’ depends on the motivational structure of the child (if you imply parenting).
An intrinsically motivated (on this kind of tasks) child will likely want to do the tasks if it clear that this is necessary to achieve it’s own goals. So if household tasks are routinely coupled to some things the child want/needs for itself like clothing of its choice, access to materials, support in its projects..., then it will do these tasks (as long as it doesn’t perceive the dependency as arbitrary, constructed, forced or unfair. Prototype example is my oldest son who has lots of projects for which he needs space and materials.
An extrinsically motivated child (more like my second oldest) can be influenced via frequent positive feedback for performing these tasks.
Sure. I can confirm that my sons resist doing it in many circumstances. But the details differ widely.
Gamification is possible. Though not always. And it has a cost in terms of efficiency. But you don’t need fun to want to do it and feel satisfaction from completing it.
Doing housework isn’t the same thing as living in a clean orderly house—someone else might be doing the housework.
I’m not sure in what way doing housework might be bad for people, I’m just inclined to think that people’s instincts aren’t totally unreliable, and people tend to not like doing housework.
I’m not clear what you are driving at. Actually I wasn’t with your first comment either.
I agree. I think I see both aspects. I have household help and she isn’t doing everything—only big chunks like laundry. Big chunks that can’t only be done on the fly. I don’t mind doing dishes while talking in the kitchen. Actually with children many household tasks come kind of for free—there isn’t much else that can be done while caring for, teaching and in general looking after four boys. Many tasks also carry a lesson and sometimes even serve to avoid boredom on my side. Or are relaxing, But yes, not the tiring ones.
I think you two are a bit talking past each other. It is an entirely different question whether doing it is good for a child (I’d say yes, easy productive success and pride) or for an adult, especially a busy one i.e. whether a surgeon is better off doing the ironing after a hospital shift or should rather outsource it to hired help (I’d say the later).
Adult instincts are fairly reliable IMHO children’s instincts not so much.
Also, adults like it if they did nothing but work on the computer all day—it is satisfying to do something “real”.
Oh, they are very reliable … toward doing only those things that are really necessary. The genes don’t know whether the laundry is necessary. It might be it might be not. There will have been comparable tasks in the ancestral environment. It is adaptive to have a drive that looks for more potential.