Kids and Work

Many of my favorite blogs and magazines have recently featured articles about children and chores.  The take home message is teach your children how to work.  Include them in the work and you will raise adults that have the ability to work.  Work with them, work cheerfully, and you will raise adults that have a positive attitude about work.  As someone who has struggled my whole life with motivating myself to work (especially housework) and doing the mundane everyday with a positive attitude, these writings really appeal to me.  I do not want to set my children up for failure!

The amazing thing is that children like to work!  They love to be big enough to be included and help the family!  And little kids are fully capable of doing good work.  They just need to be taught.  This last week I wrote up a detailed list on how to clean the bathroom.  I included a list of cleaning supplies (non toxic) and step-by-step instructions.  I called the kids to the laundry room to start our "field trip" and showed them exactly what everything looked like and where it was stored.  We traveled to the bathroom together and instead of demonstrating everything, I had the boys read the instructions and demonstrate to me which each step was.  And you know what? IJ and S can clean a bathroom with no problems!

Even F and D can work.  F can unload the dryer on rainy days and carry laundry baskets.  She can fold wash clothes and sort her's and E's laundry.  She can help her brothers water the chickens by turning the hose on and off.  In the picture above, you can see E taking the dry laundry off the line.  She hands it to D, who puts it in the basket (E also informed me that D carried this basket in the house too!).  D is also very good at picking things up off the floor and handing them to me and also running garbage to the garbage can when we do a room pickup.    

As this pregnancy progresses and I slow down, I am comforted in knowing that I have great kids that can make sandwiches, cook eggs, switch laundry, sweep and vacuum, and scrub toilets.  They care for the animals and each other...and me!  In the past, after a baby was born, it was usually a struggle getting everything taken care of, especially when M went back to work.  I remember standing in the kitchen with a newborn E and toddler IJ and S, wondering how I was going to get lunch for them.  Now I have three capable children to choose from for sandwich making and the postpartum days don't seem so scary.  M can just go back to work the day after if he wants....JUST KIDDING!