With a little more time in our days this summer, once a week, Thomas, Arthur, and I dove into a deeper territory with the household chores.
The word “team” comes out of my and Tom’s mouths a great deal here. I am constantly repeating that being part of a family is the first place you learn to work as a team. And by working together we get jobs that aren’t necessarily “fun” done faster and then can move on to something more enjoyable. (Not that chores can’t be enjoyable. For those with my personality type, they can be)
Something even more important happens here as well. The more we work together in our daily tasks, especially with our children, it’s a modeling opportunity, and still an opportunity to spend time together and ultimately know them more deeply. It’s tempting to look at the two as separate things entirely. There’s more chatter around us about “entertaining” kids, but when we involve them in the day-to-day work in the home, seeds are being planted- seeds that hopefully one day will serve them well in their adult lives.
We begin when they’re little helping them learn to pick up toys and put them away in the basket, for example. And on and on they watch a dance that happens around them of household tasks until they’re able to participate more. The older they get, there’s more freedom. And with more freedom comes more responsibility.
For example, now the bigger boys can “make” their beds and put away their folded clothes. And we’re on our way to learning new things. And like any task, working beside them for a while until they’ve mastered it makes it easier for everyone. Encouragement! And, as I see it, this is one of our jobs as parents. This is how we prepare them to one day leave this home for another.
So once a week this summer we picked a bigger chore to practice. While JL napped we were busy mopping the floor, dusting, cleaning the bathroom, and vacuuming. Was it perfect? No. Did it take longer than if I had done it by myself? Yes. But they learned some new things and each time we did it, there was less instruction because they remembered from the time before.
Did they enjoy it? Sometimes yes and sometimes no. But we made it fun. There was laughter. There were “dances” with mops! And there were times it looked like they’d taken a shower rather than cleaned the shower.
While we have many conversations about money and learning to count money, at this point they are taught to help do things on their level to help our home run smoothly. When the time comes, I can see how it may be helpful to pay them allowances or bonuses for specific tasks so that they can learn to budget their money.
For now we will continue working as a team and asking for grace to cultivate joyful hearts for the work that’s in front of us.
