The other day the Washington Post ran an article entitled “The baffling reason many millennials don’t eat cereal.”

Not being a fan of cereal myself, I clicked on it to see if other millennials shared my disinterest in the common breakfast food. Au contraire. Millennials like cereal… it’s just the washing of a bowl and spoon that they object to.

The article goes on to describe how this trend toward convenient and quick foods is a sign of a fast-paced, two-income family society in which very few people have time to prepare and eat a meal at home. However, the article also makes another interesting observation:

“But there is something different about the backlash against cereal bowls, something more foundational about it that seems to speak to a greater truth about American households today.

A 2014 national survey, conducted by Braun Research, found that 82 percent of parents said they were asked to do chores as children. But when they were asked if they required their children to do chores, only 28 percent of them said yes.

A generational shift in how families raise their kids, in other words, appears to be turning even the most mundane of responsibilities, like doing the dishes, into unthinkable nuisances.”

Let’s face it: modern parents love and want the best for their children. And in an attempt to achieve that best, parents have pushed aside chore requirements because their children fussed over them or simply didn’t have time to handle them with the busyness of school, sports, and extra-curricular activities.  

But have parents missed the fact that training their children to be diligent, capable, and efficient through the medium of chores might be one of the best ways to help their child become a success in the adult world?

“Trouble springs from Idleness, and grievous Toil from needless Ease.” – Benjamin Franklin, 1758 

Image Credit: byLorena bit.ly/1hYHpKw