Make the Kids Make Dinner. It’s Good for Them.

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An after-school cooking class at WannaBee Chef in Cresskill led by the owner, Rama Ginde, right.Credit Tom White for The New York Times

Chores: Something to look forward to!

As slogans go, it’s not exactly a winner. But put yourself in the position of Whirlpool, which makes the machines that make housework easier. In recent years, a creeping realization came over the company that with ever-escalating pressures at home and the office, American families’ feelings about cooking, cleaning and doing the wash were growing more negative. Like, they hated it.

The company had to do something, or at least, its executives wanted to. So they called on Richard Rende, a psychologist and co-author of the forthcoming book “ Raising Can-Do Kids,” for a bit of academic luster. He, in turn, produced a white paper about the misperception of chores, both in the way parents speak about them and the way children view them.

Mr. Rende’s work is both foreboding and optimistic. On one hand, he notes the decline in time that children spend on chores and the developmental benefits of doing them. Various forms of housework are correlated with better academic performance and social relationships, increased professional goals and good mental health in adulthood, according to several studies over the years. We don’t want to decrease our odds of any of that happening.

He sincerely believes, however, that we grown-ups can help turn children around and transform have-to chores into want-to tasks. It starts with our language. Are we complaining about the work around the house? That sets a tone. Perhaps we could call chores something different — house gigs? Family time, where we do these tasks together? (Suggestions welcome in the comments.)

Also, are we paying kids to do chores? That suggests that these are “low motivation tasks that require incentive,” according to Mr. Rende. Besides, if you set things up that way, what is stopping them from blowing off the chores when they feel like they have enough money for a while?

As with homework and other things we want our children to do and do well, tapping into their intrinsic motivation is key here. Mr. Rende’s suggestion is to reframe chores as a form of caretaking, something that Whirlpool has picked up on as well. These are tasks we do — together, often — because we love one another and want our home to be an orderly, well-functioning place free of clutter and conflict.

Which got me thinking about dinner and specifically about MasterChef Junior and all of the incredible kids who compete in the kitchen to impress Gordon Ramsay and his sidekicks. My 9-year-old daughter’s reaction to the show was simple yet utterly revealing, “Yeah, I can do that.”

Children are capable of so much more than we give them credit for. Kids on farms care for animals, drive tractors and operate machinery. Not everyone can live an agrarian life, but the rest of us can certainly put dinner in the hands of our children on a regular basis. Their tastes are generally not that complex, after all. With a bit of safety training and some simple recipes, they can produce passable meals from the get-go and improve over time.

Which is great for us parents. But it does nice things for them too. Food tastes good; now they can make it themselves, and that makes them feel accomplished. So does the feedback from the family; pay compliments to the chef, please, frequently if you want the meals to keep coming without too much grumbling. As teenagers, they will come to realize that cooking for friends (and eventually, special friends) can elevate their social standing. They may even cook for money, starting a mini-catering business or flipping burgers for a few summers.

It’s not floor-scrubbing with a smile. But it’s a start.