This week’s Homemaker’s Challenge at Joyful Mothering is by Karen at Faith,Family and Fibro. She asked us to give some examples of how we are teaching our children the importance of home keeping.
It was actually a friend of mine who really got the wheels turning for me when she told me her 2 kids – 5 and 3 – would empty the dishwasher whenever it was full, by themselves. At that point, my 5 and 3 year old would barely make their own beds, let alone empty a dishwasher!
So I started thinking about how, growing up, I was cleaning bathrooms and vacuuming the house by the time I was 8, and realized that I was doing a major disservice to my kids by not teaching them the value and importance of keeping a home.
It is a lot of work to teach your children to do chores – you have to stay with them to make sure they understand what you want them to do, what is a good job, and when it needs to be done over again. It is definitely a LOT faster to wash the sinks, do the dusting, fold the laundry, by yourself.
But I see it now as something that is incredibly valuable for them to learn. They are actually learning discipline, the value of hard work (and a hard-earned dollar!) and how to serve each other in our home.
We are definitely not “there” yet and we have a lot of complaining and tears and frustrating moments where I’d rather just give in. But they are learning a practical way to minister and serve, as well as being prepared for how they will one day run their own home.
I’ll have more on the topic of kids and chores when I do my next post for the Homemaker’s Challenge – so stay tuned!
