8 chores kids did in the 70s that modern children would call unfair labor

Every generation has its own version of childhood chores. But if you look back to the 1970s, what kids were asked to do at home went far beyond making the bed or tidying a room.

By today’s standards, a lot of those tasks would get side-eyed as “unfair labor.” Yet, at the time, they were considered normal—and in some families, non-negotiable.

Let’s walk through eight examples that defined childhood responsibility in the 70s.

1. Doing full loads of laundry by hand

In many homes, laundry wasn’t just tossing clothes into a sleek front-loader. Plenty of families still had older machines—or none at all. That meant kids might be stuck scrubbing stains in a tub, wringing clothes dry, and hanging them outside.

Can you imagine asking a 10-year-old today to spend an afternoon hand-washing jeans? Most would consider that cruel and unusual punishment. But in the 70s, this was how clothes got clean.

And this wasn’t just about shirts and socks. Heavy things like sheets, curtains, and towels often got added to the “kids’ pile.” Lugging water buckets, bending over tubs, and wrestling with wet fabric was physically exhausting.

I still remember visiting relatives who lived in a rural part of California. They had a rickety washer that broke every other week, so the kids were handed buckets, soap, and strict instructions: “Don’t stop until the water runs clear.” It felt like a workout program disguised as housework.

2. Ironing everyone’s clothes

It wasn’t just your own shirt you had to press. In some families, kids were expected to iron their dad’s work shirts, mom’s blouses, and even their younger siblings’ school uniforms.

That’s hours spent standing next to a hot iron, trying not to scorch fabric—or your own fingers.

I’ve mentioned before how small tasks can add up to a bigger sense of responsibility, but ironing a whole family’s wardrobe went way past “character-building.”

Historian Susan Strasser, in Never Done: A History of American Housework, discusses how domestic work (like ironing, laundry, cleaning) was “invisible but constant.” Her work shows how these tasks were a routine, often unacknowledged part of everyday life.

Modern kids? They might not even know what an ironing board is, let alone how to starch a collar.

3. Mowing the lawn with dangerous equipment

Forget today’s lightweight electric mowers with automatic shut-off. In the 70s, lawnmowers were heavy, loud, and often lacked the safety features we take for granted.

Yet, plenty of 11- or 12-year-olds were sent out to push those machines across big suburban lawns in the summer heat. No protective gear. No breaks until the job was done.

If the mower jammed, you were expected to clear the blades yourself. Bare hands. No gloves. The kind of thing that makes you wince looking back.

There’s a psychology angle here too. Psychologist David Elkind, who studied childhood stress, argued that children in past generations were often “rushed into adult roles before they were developmentally ready.” Mowing the lawn with a machine that could literally take off a toe seems like Exhibit A.

4. Babysitting younger siblings all day

Sure, kids today babysit—but usually for short bursts, and often with payment. In the 70s, the oldest child in the family might be tasked with watching over three younger siblings for an entire day while parents worked or ran errands.

No Netflix. No iPads. Just keeping everyone fed, alive, and not burning the house down.

I’ve heard countless stories from people who said their parents would casually announce, “You’re in charge. Don’t open the door for anyone,” and then disappear for hours. That wasn’t optional—it was expected.

And the weight of that responsibility was huge. If a younger sibling got hurt, it wasn’t just chaos—it often meant you got blamed. It was a setup where kids carried adult-level accountability without the maturity or tools to handle it.

5. Cooking full family meals

Microwaves weren’t common yet, and fast food wasn’t an everyday thing. Which meant kids often cooked dinner from scratch.

That could include peeling vegetables, boiling pasta, or even handling hot oil in a frying pan. By today’s standards, it sounds risky. But in the 70s, it was framed as teaching responsibility.

Some kids became competent cooks by 13. Others just learned how to avoid burning grilled cheese. Either way, it was work.

Personally, I remember being about 12 and tasked with cooking spaghetti for my family. It felt empowering at the time, but looking back, handling boiling water at that age was probably not the safest move. My mom would just shout instructions from another room and hope for the best.

The result? A generation of people who either love cooking—or carry mild trauma from being yelled at for under-seasoning the stew.

6. Cleaning bathrooms top to bottom

Cleaning your own mess is one thing. Scrubbing toilets, scraping soap scum off tiles, and bleaching mildew out of shower corners? That was another level.

In many 70s households, kids were expected to deep-clean the bathroom every week. Gloves weren’t standard, and kids often worked with harsh chemicals like bleach and ammonia—sometimes mixed together, which anyone who knows chemistry realizes is dangerous.

This wasn’t about building good hygiene habits—it was unpaid janitorial work. And if you missed a spot, parents would send you back in until the bathroom sparkled.

I remember a friend telling me his parents had a “Saturday bathroom rotation” among the kids. He called it “the Hunger Games of housework,” because everyone dreaded when it was their week.

7. Walking long distances for errands

Here’s one you rarely see today: being sent to the store on foot with a list of groceries and a few dollars.

Even if the store was miles away, kids in the 70s often had to walk—sometimes carrying back heavy bags of milk, bread, or canned goods.

Sometimes the errand wasn’t even for your own family. Neighbors might hand you a few coins and ask you to grab something for them too. It was unpaid community delivery service, powered by children’s legs.

The modern equivalent might be sending your child across town to do the weekly Costco run. But back then, it was just called “helping out.”

As noted by historian Howard Chudacoff in Children at Play, “The geography of childhood has changed radically over time.” Kids once roamed far from home for chores; now, most can’t go beyond the block without a parent in tow.

8. Helping with repairs and maintenance

Many 70s families didn’t call a handyman for every issue. If the roof leaked, a fence broke, or a car needed an oil change, parents often enlisted their kids to help.

That meant holding tools, climbing ladders, and sometimes doing jobs that were more dangerous than age-appropriate.

I can still picture my cousin being asked to crawl under a car to hold a flashlight while his dad worked on the exhaust system. Oil dripped everywhere, and the instructions were basically: “Don’t move, don’t complain, and keep the light steady.”

Looking back, it’s wild to think about a 13-year-old balancing on a roof with a hammer in hand. But in that decade, it wasn’t seen as unusual—it was part of family life.

The bottom line

Kids of the 70s weren’t just doing “chores.” They were filling in as laundromats, cooks, babysitters, janitors, landscapers, and mechanics.

From a psychological perspective, there’s a silver lining: many developed resilience and independence. But it’s also fair to say that what was once considered “normal household responsibility” would now be flagged as unsafe or simply unfair.

So, next time you hear someone talk about how “kids today have it easy,” it’s worth remembering: childhood in the 70s came with its own kind of heavy lifting. And maybe, just maybe, we can admit that not every form of “toughening kids up” needs to make a comeback.