It's important for us to teach our children at a young age responsibility. Maggie, my 3-year-old, in 17 days tear :'O( LOVES "chores" or "jobs" that are hers. We've gone through spells of bossiness between her and my younger daughter (18 months apart) so we had several lessons on what her "job" was as a big sister and what my job was as the mamma. Every time I reminded her that something wasn't her "job" she'd ask with a smirk, "what IS my job?" to which I'd respond with her list again or I'd ask her to tell me.
Maggie also has many "chores" throughout the day.
*Lunch and dinner she always sets the table: place mats for all, her and Izzie's (and any added little guests) plastic plates, little forks, sippy cups, as well as my prized fiestaware for adults, big silverware, and canned drinks. Izzie is starting to help with this one and LOVES it. She needs a bit more guidance for placement but getting better and Maggie thinks it's great to help her, since she's sooo experience ya know.
*Sorting laundry is something she helps with as well. Then she puts away things down stairs (i.e. kichen towels, her panties, burp clothes, and bibs) as well as upstairs items (i.e. clothes and big towels), if she happens to be up there with me (usually a chore I do myself).
*Unloading the dishwasher one of the 1st "chores" she was given. She was thrilled to be such a big help to me. Her job? Put away the silverware. She was meticulous at this. Originally sorting by type and size alone until we got new silverware which added the benefit of color sorting, Sweet! Just like any other person, this got boring...I guess. Now she often cons her sister into helping her which leads to mixed types/sizes/colors and sometime just up-side-down. Not a big deal, right? To you non-OCD types.
This was just one hurdle I had to overcome in able to allow my children to assist me as well as for me to be able to teach them valuable lessons on stewardship, service, and plain-ole responsibility.
What are you sacrificing in order to train your children? Leave a comment- lets chat about it.
It is so wise of you to begin teaching your little one all those chores! I believe we Mommies can’t do it all ourselves and teaching our children to be responsible is vital! I did a post about this a little while ago:
http://organizingmadefun.blogspot.com/2010/12/dont-clean-everything-up-yourself-how.html
I’d love for you to stop by! I am stopping by from Raising Homemakers!
Becky B.
http://www.organizingmadefun.com
Organizing Made Fun