8 Household Chores During the American Frontier That Would Shock Modern Kids

A survey of U.S. parents in 2014 found that although 82% of them had to do household chores in their own childhood, only 28% of them made their own children do the same today. By 2025, that number had fallen even further, with a survey of children in Ireland suggesting that today around four-fifths of children don’t do any household chores at all.

Spare a thought, then, for the children of America's frontier times in the 19th century, who were not only expected to contribute to the day-to-day running of the household from a staggeringly young age, but were expected to take on jobs that put the likes of tidying your bedroom or collecting the newspaper into a whole new perspective.

Without household plumbing, heating, and electricity—as well as supermarkets, roads, cleaning products, postal deliveries, and all the other modern conventions it’s easy to take for granted—frontier children’s chores not only took longer and required more effort, but looked a lot different from the jobs kids do (or rather, don’t do) today.

1. Chopping Wood
2. Fetching Water
3. Working the Land
4. Bringing in the Harvest
5. Churning Butter
6. Hunting
7. Sewing
8. Making Candles

Chopping Wood

Timber was, unsurprisingly, an important commodity on the American frontier, used both as fuel for home fires and stoves and as a construction material for making shelters, fences, furniture, and other much-needed items. With so much wood to collect, hew, and carry, even children on the frontier were taught how to chop wood from practically as soon as they were old enough and strong enough to wield an axe.

Fetching Water

With no household plumbing to rely on, frontier families often either collected rainwater, dug wells, trekked to nearby freshwater streams and springs, or even relied on melting snow during wintertime to maintain a steady supply of clean water at home. For families that were lucky enough to arrive sufficiently early in the West to secure homes close by to creeks and rivers, fetching water was often left to the children of the family too, who could make the relatively short trip to the waterside—armed with pitchers, pans, and whatever else they could fill and carry—while their parents were busy elsewhere.

Working the Land

Although not all frontier families travelled or kept livestock, those that did—or eventually did so after at long last settling down—found that the upkeep and husbandry needed the entire family to get involved. Although the children of frontier families often treated household livestock as makeshift pets, they were also expected to take part in many of the chores involved in keeping animals too, including milking cows, collecting eggs, and even roping cattle.

Bringing in the Harvest

Once frontier families had settled down, farming activities like plowing, sowing, weeding, and bringing in the harvest were so important to their future survival that the entire family unit got involved. Boys in particular were expected to help their father tend the land once they were old enough.

Churning Butter

While frontier kids as young as four were often expected to help in simple household chores, such as collecting eggs, older kids took on more intensive duties—which not only included working the land and helping bring in the harvest, but also included work to prepare all the produce that the family had worked so hard to grow, maintain, and reap. While tasks involving fairly heavy labor, like grinding corn, were often left to adults (or even the local community), simpler food-prep chores like churning butter were among those left to the kids. Without household refrigeration, moreover, butter-churning was often required several times a week.

Hunting

For families that kept no livestock, a steady supply of food relied on growing and foraging plants, and both fishing and hunting game—everything from turkey, duck, and deer down to squirrel, badger, and even snake was on the menu. Young boys in particular would, when old enough, often accompany their fathers on hunts, and assist in tracking game, catching fish, and even skinning and butchering their catch.

Sewing

With money and supplies often short on the frontier, being able to make do and mend was an important skill—and as a result, kids were often taught to sew, knit, darn, and repair clothes. Some families even made their own thread, wool, and fabric from what they had available, and so girls in particular were taught how to spin and weave from an early age.

Making Candles

Although both boys and girls would be expected to help out around the house and help to tend the land, as they grew older chores became more gender-defined, with boys helping their fathers out on the farm and the hunt, and girls learning cooking, cleaning, and other household tasks from their mothers. They might not have been dealing with animals and the great outdoors, but that’s not to say that girls’ chores were any safer, though. With no stores to rely on for a steady supply of household items, jobs at home on the frontier often included making candles and even soap—which meant that girls had to deal with pots of melted wax and the potential dangers of working with the lye used in soap-making that could burn the skin if not handled correctly.  

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