That’s a really good question and like most good questions, there is never a straight forward answer. I get asked this frequently and often comment that if you’re asking me, you’re likely ready or very close to it. I don’t know about most parents, but I didn’t think much about anything except sleep when my children were both under 3 and it seems that only after they were out of diapers and I could watch them with just one eye, that I started thinking about introducing them to volunteering.

Nevertheless, I think it’s really never too early to start family volunteering. For example, we’ve had activities like park clean-ups where parents bring a backpack carrier to hold their less than 1-year old, or an assembly project where a mom wore a Baby Bjorn or brought a stroller while baby brother was sleeping during an activity. But for actual participation, I’ve been pleasantly surprised. My initial thoughts were at 4 years of age, but over the past year we’ve had several 2- and 3-year old children participate in our activities. And in most cases, these young children always surprise me. The focus they have is amazing and you can see a sense of accomplishment when they’re done. I think even their parents walk away impressed with their child’s abilities.

I’ll never forget the first time we took a group in to help breakdown computers for the Goodwill GreenWorks program. We had several young children, including a 3-year old, sign up to join our volunteer group. As I observed our young children start to disassemble the computers, I was already thinking to myself that I might need to put an age restriction to 8 years and up as I envisioned children getting frustrated or bored with the activity and instead running around the facilities checking out areas that they shouldn’t be exploring. But this wasn’t the case. In fact, it was quite the opposite. For a solid hour, the work area was quiet with no sounds except the pops and clicks of computers being taken apart. The children were focused and seemed to enjoy working with their parents to take apart the computers. They were intrigued by the different components in a computer and seemed challenged enough to finish one and move on to another.

As we all know, every child is different. Some may be ready sooner than others. But if you think your child is ready then try it and see what happens. If it doesn’t work and they don’t seem engaged enough you can always try again later, or perhaps a different volunteer activity might interest them more. Sometimes it takes a few times for a child to start understanding what they’re doing and they’re probably understanding more than you think. Family volunteering is not only about the hands-on activity itself and of course the ultimate beneficiary of the work being done, but an opportunity for children regardless of their age to observe the most important role models in their lives who can provide the best examples of helping others — family.