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The longest ongoing study on human happiness found a strange predictor of adult success. It wasn’t private schooling. It was taking out the trash.

Research, including the famous Harvard Grant Study, repeatedly draws a bright line between childhood chores and adult wellbeing. Chores build self-reliance. They teach a kid they are part of an ecosystem that requires their effort to function. The data is correlational—families with strict chore rotas often have parents setting clear boundaries in other areas, which helps too. So it is not a magic ticket. But handing them a watering can before they turn ten is a remarkably good bet.