> Most were doing chores or actual work throughout history.
I have to disagree, the young of other social animals like dogs and lions all spend most of their time "playing". This, combined with the fact that a human child is comparatively underdeveloped compared to the young of every other animal makes it hard to conceive of any useful task a child could do in a neolithic society. It's not like toys are some recent invention, they're one of the oldest types of artefact we dig up. I believe "chores" are a modern invention that exists mostly to act as busywork. Washing dishes doesn't teach you anything important but many types of play exist as a sort of simulation of adult life.
What? Chores are things that need to get done by the family. Someone needs to feed the dog, someone needs to clean the dishes, someone needs to take out the compost. Kids can participate in this stuff from a very young age, and doing chores together is full of moments to teach and play.
For example my daughter would help fold towels at age 4, and we'd sing a song about a butterfly folding its wings. It is a complex motion for a young body, involving many movements that cross the body. It was a chance to sing a song together and invent new verses together. It was a chance to bond as a parent, and to set the example that we all contribute to the family.
Fast forward a few years and she's interested in other chores, from laundry to dishes to cooking to caring for the pets. It's just a baseline expectation that we all contribute in the ways we can.
It's patently absurd to suggest chores are simply busywork. There's plenty of opportunities for play, creativity, socialization, education, and neurological development in doing chores.
I honestly would argue that it doesn’t. And mind you, this comes from someone who handwashes the dishes almost every night, regardless of whether my sink has just 1 or 10 plates, and whose only ever roommate conflict happened because the roommate was always procrastinating on doing his dishes.
I absolutely hated doing dishes and chores when i lived with parents, as well as other “teenage chores” like mowing lawn and such. My parents wanted me to do it not because they needed my help, but because it was a “teachable moment” (which they expressed in very clear terms). It especially ticked me off, because i would use maybe a single plate in a day back then, while the rest of my family would add like 6-8 plates on top of it + tons of other stuff like pots and pans and such. I got very annoyed by it very quickly, so i managed to convince my parents to let me not do dishes as often, as long as i spent all that time studying instead (on top of a lot of studying i was doing in the first place). It was far from an easy negotiation, took me months of time and lots of heated arguments to get to that flimsy compromise.
Now that i live on my own, doing dishes feels like a meditative sort of mindless thing to do at the end of the day (kinda like playing minecraft as something busy to do while listening to a podcast episode), except it also helps keeping my place clean and orderly. And i legitimately enjoy doing it well, paying close attention to every plate, etc. I dont even ever use my dishwasher for any purpose other than a drying rack for dishes I hand wash.
What i personally learned from this, it is less about the task itself and more about the purpose (and control). My parents would want me to do dishes at a specific time (often enough interrupting what i am doing) and just for the purpose of a “teachable moment”. I absolutely dreaded doing it.
These days, i do dishes every night, but on my own schedule, out of my own volition, and for the sole purpose of maintaining order at my place of living. It feels more like a relaxing task to do than a chore.
I had horrible parents that were not super loving to me, but I remember a moment where my dad explained why the soap bubbles increased when using hot water. I miss you dad.
I have to disagree, the young of other social animals like dogs and lions all spend most of their time "playing". This, combined with the fact that a human child is comparatively underdeveloped compared to the young of every other animal makes it hard to conceive of any useful task a child could do in a neolithic society. It's not like toys are some recent invention, they're one of the oldest types of artefact we dig up. I believe "chores" are a modern invention that exists mostly to act as busywork. Washing dishes doesn't teach you anything important but many types of play exist as a sort of simulation of adult life.