Let Them Help!

Today’s world would have you to believe that chores and responsibilities for children are cruel. I would argue the opposite. Raising children to believe that in life things will simply be done for them, and no effort will ever be required on their behalf seems insanely crippling. Besides, the reality is that your children want to help you. Don’t be so quick to shoo the little one out of the kitchen while you cook, stop making it so obvious that they’re bothering you with their presence when you are mowing the lawn. They’re learning! Bring them in, explain what’s going on, show them the proper way so that in the upcoming days you can reasonably ask them to takeover the job! You’ve gained a helper, and they’ve gained a life skill, there are no losers in this situation.

At our home, we’ve raised chickens since the early years of our children’s lives. They’ve grown up watching us handle the chickens, I never sent them away. For this reason we had children younger than 2 years old who understood not to chase chickens, how to approach and touch them without startling them, and how to feed them by hand! By age 3 our children could successfully collect the eggs for the morning without breaking a single one.

Remember, children are small, but they are people. They’re just smaller people. You weren’t born knowing the things you know, at some point along the way you learned them. Let’s make things easier for the upcoming generations. We are a generation of parents who truly had to figure alot of things out on our own, let’s teach our children. We can make this easier for them.