Quiz for the day: How much time each day, on average, does a 6- to 12-year-old child spend on household chores?

If you guessed more than a half-hour, you're wrong. Children are spending a mere 24 minutes a day doing cleaning, laundry and other housework -- a 12% decline since 1997 and a 25% drop from 1981 levels, says Sandra Hofferth, director of the Maryland Population Research Center at the University of Maryland, based on a forthcoming study of 1,343 children. In the glacial realm of sociological change, that amounts to a free fall.

It also reflects 'important behavioral and values shifts that will affect lives for years to come,' Dr. Hofferth says. One consequence is never more obvious than at this time of year, when hundreds of thousands of college freshmen move into their dorms and promptly begin destroying their laundry. Other studies suggest the shift may have longer-term implications for marriage and community life.

Of course, children aren't doing housework partly because they're spending more time on such worthy pursuits as reading, studying and youth groups, Dr. Hofferth's data show. Parents are doing less housework themselves, hiring help or just making peace with dust bunnies. And clearly, some housework is best relegated to museums. While Allison O'Steen, Tryon, N.C., loved her late mother, she says, her habit of ironing sheets isn't something Ms. O'Steen, a mother of two, wants to pass on.

Nevertheless, research into the role of housework in human relationships suggests we may be losing something of value here. While most parents today focus mostly on teaching kids self-reliance -- keeping themselves clean, fed and botulism-free -- the benefits of learning housework run deeper. For example:

-- Pitching in at home has become a crucial marriage-preservation skill for young men. Studies show parents still assign more housework to girls than boys. Yet these same young women hope as adults to find men who will help out; 90% of 60 women ages 18 to 32 studied by Kathleen Gerson, a New York University sociology professor, said they hoped to share housework and child care with spouses 'in a committed, mutually supportive and egalitarian way.' After controlling for other factors, U.S. marriages tend to be more stable when men participate more in domestic tasks, says a study of 506 U.S. couples published in 2006 in the American Journal of Sociology.

Mindful of the issue, Kathy Helmetag, Troy, Mich., is instilling 'the whole housekeeping thing into' her sons, 7 and 9, she says. Years from now, she believes, their homemaking skills will help them 'score a few points with any significant others.'

-- Housework has unique value in instilling a habit of serving others. Analyzing data on more than 3,000 adults, Alice Rossi, a professor emerita of sociology at University of Massachusetts Amherst, found doing household chores as a child was a major, independent predictor of whether a person chose to do volunteer or other community work as an adult. Thus for parents who value service, housework is an important teaching tool.

David Jackson has consistently required his twins, 16, to help around the house, starting as toddlers when they began picking up their toys and adding harder chores, such as stocking bathrooms or mowing the lawn, at each new stage. He sees the chores as a way of teaching empathy and 'stewardship -- taking care of the community assets,' says the Tulsa, Okla., father. 'It helps them realize the world is not all about them.'

-- If you enjoy a domestic art as an outlet for creativity or love, it's worth passing on. I love sewing; making prom dresses years ago with my stepdaughter is a fond memory. But I was always rushing around too much when my two biological kids were small to sit down and teach them to sew. With 20-20 hindsight, I'm sorry that at ages 18 and 20, they still don't know how.

If you lack time to teach a home art you love, look for other avenues. Keeping the family TV tuned to the Food Channel inspired Cindy Harris's son Mikey, 8, to love cooking. For show-and-tell in second grade, he whipped up a chef's salad; he concocts novel cookie recipes with chocolate, coconut, butterscotch and pecans. While the cookies can be strange, says the Novato, Calif., mother of two, the whole family nevertheless cherishes Mikey's gifts.

先作个小测验：6至12岁的孩子平均每天做多长时间的家务劳动？

如果你认为超过半个小时，那你就错了。马里兰大学(University of Maryland)马里兰人口研究中心主任桑德拉·霍弗尔兹(Sandra Hofferth)基于对1,343名儿童的研究得出结论称，如今孩子每天只花24分钟做清扫、洗衣或其他家务活，比1997年减少了12%，比1981年减少了25%。从社会学变化的宏观领域来说，这是一个非常明显的下降。

霍弗尔兹说，这也反映了重要的行为和价值转变，它将会影响到今后多年的生活。其中一个结果在每年的这个时候再明显不过了：数十万大学新生搬进宿舍，在洗衣上的笨拙很快就一览无余了。还有研究显示，这种变化会对婚姻和家庭生活产生更为长远的影响。

当然，霍弗尔兹的数据也显示，孩子们不做家务的原因之一在于他们花在读书、学习和青年社团等"更有价值"活动的时间增加了。父母自己所做的家务活也少了，他们常常会请小时工或是对角落里的灰尘视而不见。显然，一些家务活最好还是送进博物馆中吧。北卡罗来纳州两个孩子的母亲阿里森·奥斯汀(Allison O'Steen)说，尽管她爱已故的母亲，但她却不想继承母亲熨床单的习惯。

不过，针对家务活在人际关系中的作用所做的研究显示，我们可能正在失去其中一些有价值的东西。尽管现在的大多数父母更看重的是让孩子们自立，让他们自己打扫卫生、有饭吃且不要食物中毒，不过，学会做家务的好处还更为深远。比如：

--干家务已成为年轻男性维持婚姻的重要技能。研究显示，父母安排给女孩的家务活仍比男孩多。不过，同样是这些年轻女性在成人后却希望找一个能帮一把手的男性；在纽约大学社会学教授凯瑟琳·戈森(Kathleen Gerson)研究的60名18至32岁的女性中，有90%的人说她们希望与配偶以一种负责、相互支持和平等的方式分担家务和孩子的照料。根据《美国社会学杂志》(The American Journal of Sociology) 2006年发表的一份对506对美国夫妻的研究报告，在控制了其它因素后，当丈夫从事了更多的家务活时，美国人的婚姻会变得更为稳定。

密歇根州的凯西·海尔梅泰格(Kathy Helmetag)就意识到了这个问题。她说，她正在让7岁和9岁的儿子慢慢学习所有的家务活。她认为，他们做家务活的技能将有助于他们在其它重要的方面受益。

--家务活对养成服务他人的习惯具有独特的价值。马萨诸塞大学阿姆赫斯特校区(University of Massachusetts Amherst)社会学名誉教授艾丽丝·罗西(Alice Rossi)分析了3,000多名成人的数据，她发现孩提时代是否做家务是预测成年后选择志愿服务或其他社区工作与否的重要独立指标。因此对崇尚服务的家长而言，做家务是重要的教育工具。

大卫·杰克逊(David Jackson)一直要求他16岁的双胞胎孩子帮助干家务，从蹒跚学步时就开始整理玩具，然后在每一个新阶段都提高难度，如整理浴室或是修剪草坪。他觉得这些家务活是培养同情心和做好社区资产管家的途径。这位俄克拉荷马州的父亲说，这会有助于他们认识到这个世界并不是围着他们转的。

--如果你将家务视为一种艺术享受，从中体会到创造或是爱，那它就值得继承。我喜欢缝纫；多年前和继女一起缝制舞会礼服仍是一段温馨的回忆。但当我的两个亲生孩子还不大时，我却总是太忙了，无暇坐下来教她们缝纫。现在，我很抱歉到了她们到了18岁和20岁后还不知道应该如何做。

如果你缺乏时间教你喜爱的家务，可以寻找其他途径。家中的电视总调到美食频道让辛迪·哈里斯(Cindy Harris) 8岁的儿子麦基(Mikey)喜欢上了烹饪。在二年级的展示-介绍课上，他端上了一道主厨沙拉；他用巧克力、椰蓉、奶糖和核桃仁配制出一款独特的甜点。这位两个孩子的母亲说，尽管这道甜点有些古怪，但全家人都很珍视这份来自麦基的礼物。
关键字:市民英语
生词表: