Let me be the first to admit that I have often done more than my fair share of the chores while there have been perfectly capable children lying on my couch or goofing around in an unhelpful manner!
It is my desire in writing these series of posts to come alongside you whether you already have hard working children, or children that hardly work. I hope there is something in here for all of you to help encourage and inspire you to take that next right step.
Entitlement?
I think we can all agree that our kids do not work near as hard as past generations. If you spend any time at all reading books from the past, you will often hear of kids working hard at tough jobs at a much younger age than we would expect of our own kids.
Kids expecting food to be on the table, clothes to be clean and in their drawer when they need them, and to actually have matching clean socks to put on each day without thinking that it could be something they could actually help out with would indeed clarify as an entitled child!
We can put an end to this!
Parenting is a journey
Parenting is a journey. You learn along the way through trial and error, watching and learning from other parents, looking back on how you were parented as well as reading books and attending conferences to learn what you can from the “experts”.
Teaching chores has been one of those little legs of this parenting journey I am continually trying to improve on!
While growing up, I was the youngest, and for many of my growing up years, the only child at home. We lived in town, and I honestly don’t remember being required to do a whole lot other than dust the furniture and help fold the laundry from time to time. Although my parents did instill in me a great work ethic, I just don’t remember being required to do a lot around the house.
Now I am raising 5 children, living on a sheep farm and growing a commercial garden. The chore list around here is a sort of, well… lengthy!
My effort to instill hard work
I have always tried, with various methods, to get my kids to help around the house. We have used a myriad of chore charts and systems to help motivate the kids to be more helpful around the house. There is always a nagging feeling in the back of my mind thinking, “they should be doing more!” But, overall, I do believe our children have learned that we work hard around here!
Getting kids to work can be a daunting task. Ask a kid, “Hey do you want to go out for ice cream?” Easy! “Please clean your room and take out the trash.” Hard! The tantrums, the complaints, the dawdling, the whining can cause the weary to decide it’s really not worth it. I’ll just do it myself, you might decide, umm… guilty on many occasions right here!
It’s worth it!
I’m here to say it is so worth taking the harder road, however! I have to regularly remind myself how important it is to teach our kids to work. I have seen my older kids work for others and am so proud to hear how hard and well they worked. I don’t want to give up with the younger ones, and allow them to become idle or lazy or entitled!
I know there is definitely room for improvement to help our home, yard, cars and farm become more orderly and clean on a regular basis without working myself to death! With five able bodied children, the tasks should be able to be divided and conquered with success!
Upcoming posts
I will be sharing bite-sized posts on :
- What the Bible says about work and other motivation and inspirational quotes that will help you stay the course in the work education of your children.
- How to build on your child’s interest to help them gain confidence in accomplishing hard tasks they actually enjoy doing.
- What kinds of chores your kids can and should be doing at home. A look into other families to see what is appropriate and might just inspire you to push your kids to do a bit more.
- Multiple methods or systems you can implement to help the chore division become a simpler process.
- Compensation – a discussion involving how payment is involved with chores as I share a variety of views and ideas on the use of money or other rewards or lack there as chores are completed.
- I will also help guide us into encouraging excellence from our kids, not perfection in their work.
I am always trying to discover what I can do that I can actually become consistent at and I will be sharing with you what I have learned!
Spreading the workload amongst the family (large or small) is a must! No one person should shoulder the chores. Working together as a family is one of the most important things you can teach your child.
Children need to feel needed. They might not tell you they desire to work around the house, but to feel needed by the family having a regular chore that is their responsibility, helps them realize that the family needs them, that they are a vital part to the family.
John Rosemond, “A Family of Value”
Want to join me?
If you are saying to yourself, “Yes, I know my child or children could be doing more around the house”, then join me! I am going to be implementing some more consistent, regular chores around here. I am also going to be squashing (or at least attempting to squash) the complaining that seems to accompany the required requested tasks ! This is a verse we will have as a reminder,
Do everything without grumbling or arguing.
Philippians 2:14
I will be sharing the consequences we will use for work that is not done, or if the complaining or arguing should occur. (Haha, I should say, “when” it occurs, not if”). I will also be sharing stories from other families that have done a great job in teaching their children to work hard. We can all learn from one another.
So stay tuned as I share from our journey of putting an ending to child entitlement one family at a time. There will be struggles, challenges, days I just want to give up and let them get away with mediocrity. So you are all going to help hold me accountable to staying on top of this great task!
Join me on Facebook and Instagram where you can join in on discussion and see my progress, struggles, challenges and triumphs!
Great idea for a series!
Thanks mom!