Van asks to help a lot. And by “help”, what he normally means is that he wants to make my job a thousand times harder and longer than it would be if I simply did it by myself. I feel like a punk every time I tell him “no”. And so, I’ve started giving him his own chores to do while I do mine in an effort to keep his little hands busy. And, by golly, it’s actually been – dare I say – helpful.
Typically, when I empty the dishwasher, he wants to press all of the buttons and make the spinner under the rack go around in circles. It drives me insane. So now, while I put away the bigger stuff – plates and cups – I give him the silverware. You know that I rock feeling you get when you know you’re doing something right as a mother? Well, every time I watch him put the silverware away, I get that feeling. He learned instantly how to differentiate between the sharp knives and the dull ones, the long forks versus the short ones, and when one utensil falls into the wrong section, he always fixes it. It’s pretty special to watch those little wheels spin and he’s pretty stoked with himself when he’s all finished. And hey, it’s one less thing for me to do. I don’t even care that every time I open the silverware drawer it looks like someone threw each piece in from twenty feet away. The disheveled appearance doesn’t bother me one bit.
He also helps me clean the counters. He loves spraying the spray bottle, so I show him where to spray and then I wipe it clean. Teamwork for the win.
The other day, he helped me pot some plants. It was something I was going to wait to do until both of them were sleeping, but I had lots of other things to do with that precious nap time so I decided to involve him instead. Hooper was at preschool. His job was to fill his plastic cup with potting soil and bring it over to where I was and fill the empty pots. My back, and knees, thanked him for not having to get up and down a thousand times myself. And, again, he enjoyed it.
Both of my boys fight over the vacuum. Now there’s a fight I don’t break up.
What kinds of chores do you give your kids to do around the house? It’s one of my New Years resolutions to continue doing this sort of thing. Too often it becomes easier to just do it myself, but I know the lessons embedded in the tasks are more important.
My youngest is really into helping with chores. He loves to help sort the laundry and especially to spray the stains or soiled spots on things that I give him. I tell him where to spray and he goes to town. And the vacuum cleaner, forget it. He is literally obsessed, has been since he was two and he’s four now. We got him a toy dyson replica last year which my husband had a little “accident” with. So this year we bit the bullet and actually got him his own full size vacuum. He loves to vacuum up anything and knows how to take apart the entire thing and put it back together on his own.
I find it really easy to include my kids on the chores. It’s cooking with them that I always have a hard time with. For some reason it always turns into a disaster for me.
What a boots magoots! I love him.
What a sweet little helper:-)
Yes! I love giving my almost three year old chores. She is always on silverware duty, both with filling the dishwasher and emptying it. She loves setting the table and helping with laundry. I gave her a little broom, and she likes to move dirt around with it…can’t say it’s at all helpful though. I also feel like I never have to mop anymore, because I often let her go to town on the floor with a spray bottle and towel. Hoping for a clean house/lazy future. Now if I could only get her to clean up her toys with the same fervor she has for “helping.”
Our little man is 2 and loves to ‘help’. We chuck all the clean clothes in a pile of the floor and he can pick his up and drop them into a basket, he hands me the wet washing to hang on the line (takes a looooooooong time but saves bending down), he also loves doing bubbles (washing dishes) but this is super messy as the wash water ends up all over the floor. A big van of the vac-er-room but only if it’s not plugged in!
Out in the garden he’ll happily dig in a pile of dirt while I get other stuff done, so one vegie box is for his use only – that way I don’t care if it gets destroyed. Loves collecting the chook eggs, which is great because his little hands can reach into the nooks and crannies that I can’t get too.
I find that if I accept his short attention span (will only really spend a maximum of 15 minutes doing any one thing) and his desire to be involved in absolutely everything his Dad and I do then life becomes a lot easier. It’s nice to hear myself saying Yes as opposed to No all the time.
I couldn’t agree more. Thanks for sharing. And cheers to saving our backs…