Age 16
Chore chart for 16 year olds
Sixteen can look after a meal, a bathroom, and their own laundry. The chart is practice for a first apartment, not a behavior grade.
Keep it short. A sixteen-year-old with eight cute rows will ignore all of them. Four real jobs will get done more often.
What a 16-year-old can do
Use this as a menu. Your house, your safety rules.
- Weekly dinner
- Laundry without a rescue
- Bathroom
- Trash and a shared-room reset
- Their own appointments on a calendar
Skip these for now
Not because kids are incapable of growth — because the risk or the teaching cost is too high for a first chart.
- A star chart “to be consistent with the little kids”
- Surprise fees for jobs you never listed
How to run the week
If they drive, car care can be a paid extra. Do not quietly add it to the free list after a messy weekend.
Print the 16-year-old template or track the same four rows in the weekly tracker.
Reward idea: A clear allowance or privilege. No retroactive negotiations.
Layout: Points table. The 16-year-old library chart matches this.
Questions parents ask
- How many chores at this age?
- Fewer rows, heavier jobs.
- Printable or digital?
- Either. Teens often prefer checking a phone. Little kids prefer the fridge.