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I only make one of my children do chores - does that make me a bad parent?
A mum has been put on blast for making her eldest daughter do household chores but not her youngest.
The woman said her 13-year-old does not help with household duties as she has more extracurricular activities than her 16-year-old.
The older teen is complaining the division of labour was 'unfair' as she has been doing chores since she was 11 when she had more after-school activities - but her sister has never had to lift a finger.
Many were quick to side with the 16-year-old, slamming the mum for 'favouring' her youngest child.
The 49-year-old mum said outside of school her younger daughter has a long list of activities including badminton, debating, orchestra, violin, piano and string consort lessons as well as 30 minutes of practising all her instruments a day.
A mum has been slammed for making her 16-year-old daughter do chores but not her 13-year-old. The eldest daughter thinks it's 'unfair' that she pick up all the slack (stock image)
However, her eldest only does two hours of orchestra and one hour of choir a week.
'I only reluctantly let the 16-year-old quit both her instruments due to her constant protest,' the mum explained in a Reddit post.
'The 16-year-old is calling me unfair as she has had to do chores since she was 11 but her younger sister still doesn't at 13.'
She said she makes her eldest do a 'reasonable' amount of tasks including wiping the dining table every day, putting away the dishes on the rack for weekends, and hanging up the laundry twice a week while her sister does nothing.
'The fact that 13-year-old does not need to help out is irrelevant,' the mum added.
She asked if she was in the wrong for making one child do housework and not the other.
'13-year-old should be helping too, but it seems like you don't want her to because you want to punish 16 for standing against you and dropping instruments. Sounds like it burns you up that you don't control her the way you want,' one user harshly replied.
'The punishment is not the chores itself, but knowing her sister doesn't have to do them because you favour her.'
The mum said outside of school her younger daughter has a long list of activities including badminton, debating, orchestra, violin, piano lessons (stock image)
'Is the 13-year-old so busy that they can't take on the five minutes to wipe down the table after dinner? And if she is, then she has a larger issue with working the daughter to death,' a second pointed out.
Others said the younger child should be doing chores so she can learn how to be a self-sufficient adult.
'You are doing your younger daughter no favours by letting her dip out of household responsibilities. Yes, extracurricular activities are important, but learning basic life skills, as well as learning to cooperate and work together, is equally, if not more, important,' one woman said.
'Chores means learning life skills, so start teaching your 13-year-old, so she doesn't end up an idiot who doesn't know how to vacuum and do laundry,' another agreed.
But not everyone criticised the mum's approach.
'Your 13-year-old seems to have plenty on her plate. The point of chores is teaching kids responsibility, and it sure reads like she has plenty of opportunities to practice being responsible,' one user said.
