How do you get a child to help with household work?

Start younger than feels efficient. A three-year-old genuinely wants to help and is bad at it; a ten-year-old is capable and no longer wants to, so the window is early. Give real tasks rather than token ones, accept a lower standard without redoing it in front of them, and make it routine rather than negotiated each time. Framing matters — contributing to the family works better than chores done for reward, and paying for basic household tasks tends to undermine the intrinsic motivation. In households with domestic help, this needs deliberate effort rather than defaulting.