Childhood chores.

KIDS have never had it so good ... or have they!

Whatever happened to the days when youngsters had to really get stuck into jobs around the house to help parents.

Those were the days when they earned their pocket money, that's if there was any to give.

But in general they might, in some form, have helped with the washing, clearing out the back yard, look after their younger brothers and also run messages for their parents, grandparents and even neighbours. This was before they were allowed out to play and, oh, yes, some of them may have had school homework to do as well.

A new study has just been released to say that up until around 1980 children were often expected to help do the chores around the house, whereas to day, schoolwork is considered their only real responsibility. In the 'old days' mum would have the girls helping in the kitchen, while they carried out their chores they would also be learning how to cook. They may have had to make the cakes or put into action their latest school cookery lesson and make bread or even a jam blackberry tart.

The boys, after running messages to the corner shop and helping shovel the coal into the coalhouse, would learn about car engines when dad changed the oil or tuned up the old banger. There was no chance of shutting yourself away in a room and jumping onto a computer in those days, and as soon as you gained your freedom, it was for a game of football.

One Remember When reader told me that she was helping her mother paint at the age of eight.

"I can remember my mother telling how the paint went on - 'not too much on the brush and brush it well in.' "My mother worked nights and it was just natural for me to get stuck in and help with the tidying up, decorating or anything I could do to make life easier for her."

I've put together plenty of Remember When stories about youngsters taking the washing around to the local wash-house and looking after the younger members of the family while mam scrubbed out the house or made the dinner.

Another reader tells how she used to run messages to the local shop, which was over a field and across a main road, when she was five or six.

"I would have a shopping bag and carry bread and milk. The milk in those days was in a glass bottle. When I was about nine or ten I would be helping scrub the skirting boards - we had to help because mam worked full-time.

"Then when I was around 12 I would be coming home from school at dinner time and getting the dinner ready to go on for tea time, carrying on what my mother had started before she went to work. It was a team effort in the family, but we always felt we were doing what was right and didn't consider that we worked really hard. But it was not unusual when sitting at night for my dad to say 'I'm going out for a bit, go and polish my shoes' or for him to say 'go and make a cup of tea for your mam while she's ironing' - and no electric kettles in those days.

"I'd often have to polish all the shoes ready for the next morning and dad showed me how they did it in the army, so I was quite proud of the results. It was part of growing up."

The new study of articles, advice and letters published in more than 300 parenting magazines between 1920 and 2006 has found that most modern-day children are only asked to take on trivial responsibilities, such as feeding a pet, clearing the table or tidying up after themselves.

It said that between the 1930s and 1970s, adolescent and pre-adolescent children were expected to plan menus, shop and prepare meals for the family.

The study said that children were given responsibility for tasks including nursing sick family members, keeping household accounts, decorating or even helping to maintain the family car.

Even very young children were assumed to be capable of contributing to necessary tasks and one mother's letter described how she taught her four-year-old to lay kindling and strike a match to start a fire.

When I asked one of our readers about this she said: "Although we would fill the coal bucket up and carry it in, the rule in the house was that none of the children were to touch the fire."

But pressures were different on children in those days.

Schools were much closer, there was less homework and it was generally a more tightly-knit community. Also, today's parents either want their children to enjoy life more, or they want to get their chores sorted quicker and that means watching over youngsters as they try to help costs time.

CAPTION(S):

What were your chores when you were young? Write to Ray Marshall, Remember When, Evening Chronicle, Groat Market, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 1ED or email [e-mail].