|
Some folks might take a view that chores are only for mothers and fathers and that a child’s job in life is to “play” and any more than that is hampering his/her onetime childhood. But after we began to train “helping hands” in our own children, we have to say that parents who don’t attempt to train their children to do chores actually hinder them from a LOT OF CHILDHOOD FUN! We are now convinced more than ever that toddlers, preschoolers and school age children thrive on the concept of responsibility. Why? Because their sights are fixed on growing up and they can pour as much energy into that vision as they can into play. Much of their play is actually a replica of what they see in the adult world. A little boy carries a gallon of milk from the trunk to the refrigerator to help his Mama after shopping and gets a “Honey, you sure are strong this morning!” and feels like “HE IS THE MAN!”. A little girl is asked to help set the table for dinner and the parent swallows hard, halting all respiratory functions until the plate has made a safe landing. She gets a “Gee! Honey, you carried those plates so well. What a helper!” and she feels she is ready to try a hand at your Bone China next time! (Make sure that’s locked up, OK?!)
DREADED CHORES
Hmm, we’ve been there, too! But we want to challenge you to start thinking of “chores” as a great
opportunity for building relationship with your children! It doesn’t have to be a “crack the whip” time.
It can become a “together time”. You are training skills and they are spending quality time with you,
practicing under your tutelage and supervision.
THE BLESSING OF CHORES
As in everything there are moments of glory and moments of drudgery. Consistent training is the key. You
are training them to have helping hands. Don’t give up on your children in these areas. They need the
opportunity to build physical skills in these areas and build character. Working hard to get a job done and
DONE WELL is a part of building integrity and perseverance. Our children will be challenged in life to do
a lot of things they simply don’t want to do, but they can learn to take pleasure in a job well done and
sit back and enjoy the fruit of their labor when it’s complete.
THANK YOU! We want to thank you for visiting our site. God has built our family through adoption.
We now have three special blessings all from the great and vast country of Russia. We have used funds from ResponsibleHands.com and Responsible Hearts to
become debt free. It is one way we have off set previous adoption and living costs. As we sought God to grant us another
child (actually a new daughter for us and sister for Jenna who has been begging for one), the Lord our God has graciously
granted us permission to expand our family and our "tent borders" once again, but this time through
a new and surprising way for our family. Our fourth child is due to be born this January 2003 and much to Jenna's
delight, there is great reason to believe her prayers and special request for a sister have been answered. Here are our three beautiful children and
their special story if you are interested.
Visit our family website: "Our Grafted Tree Family" |