We created our first Helping Hands Chore Chart when we started to see in our toddler and preschool age children an eager desire to "help us around the house". Our children wanted to be involved in everything we did. They saw it as a kind of game, "Let's play I'm a big girl and do what Mama does!" We knew this was natural, but as parents we just saw it as role playing - you know, typical kids stuff. Well, they took it much more seriously than we did. We realized this when sibling competition broke out over "who would help Mama with the dishes or the vacuum or the whatever!" As I was going about my business of mothering, I started to envision my two year old as a 10 year old boy and my four year old as a 14 year old girl. What kind of kids did I want my little ones to be at that age? We knew then and there that training to have responsible older children and teens meant that we had to start when they were eager takers as toddlers and young children.

We had our doubts! Little sirens and flashing red warning lights went off in my brain! I could hear myself saying, "What if they break MY.....?" "Ahhh! Not on MY nice table!" "WHOOPS! You just dusted MY glass vase TO THE FLOOR!" Notice all those "MY's"? As the mother, I fretted about the little nest I built! But as I analyzed my motives and thoughts on the matter I came to the conclusion that we couldn't deprive them of the opportunity to learn to do these things. How could I say, "No, let's wait until you're older, because you're just a little guy now", but expect them to miraculously transform into helpers overnight when they reach that elusive "age of accountability". How could I expect them to be helpful when I hadn't trained in them "Responsible Hands - Helping Hands"?

As the saying goes, just a "little dab'll do 'em"! Small steps of responsibility for small people and bigger steps as they gain more skill and understanding. It's like building up muscles of responsibility! By exercising responsibility, they learn how to be responsible and become helpers! This is a quality I'd like them to take into the big world, when I'm no longer Mama over all their affairs and they become the organizers and managers of their own lives. These are the goals we strive for and hope you can catch some of that vision for yourself.