When kids can help Moms stay sane
Some three weeks ago I wrote a post on ‘How to Stay Sane’ if you’re a Stay at home Mom. Practical tips that I hope will help us manage our days as fulltime moms.
But as I read through the tips, I think there should be another point added to the list.
We should … get our kids involved around the house.
When kids are actively involved in helping around the house, moms will end up having ‘more time’ to do other things (or, more time to relax and read the papers, eg.)
[Btw, I wrote a post on ‘getting kids involved around the house’ last year, click here to read it]
Anyway.
For our case, we try to get our kids involved as much as possible since they’re young.
Like for example,
Anya packs her own bag before school, puts on her socks and shoes, and opens the gate herself. She’d get the key, climb up the gate, unlock the padlock, and climb back down. And while she does all that, I have some time to get other things ready before leaving the house.
The kids clean and brush their own shoes in the bathroom every one or two weeks (and they LOVE this! The idea of having dirty shoes waiting to be brushed clean, soapy water and brushes in hands is just too much fun for them! hehe).
[note: Usually the shoes won’t be THAT clean afterwards, and I’d still need to brush them again. But the activity alone keeps them occupied and happy, AND I get some extra time doing other things too while they’re at it]
They’d need to tidy up their toys after play, and I’d sometimes ask them to help me carry our rubbish bags out, bring our dirty laundry from our bathroom to the laundry basket near our washing machine, etc.
And in the photo above, Anya and Vai were (having fun) brushing away the dirt and dust on our main gate with used toothbrushes and a damp cloth.
…
I believe it takes time, patience and consistency to teach our kids about being an active helper out around house.
And though it’s not easy, I must say it is necessary.
Because throughout the process, kids will not only learn about responsibility and independence, but also the importance of being a helpful part of the family.
Being appreciated members of the family.
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thanks for the great post, completely agree that we should involve our child to help around the house. we’re training them to be independent and responsible adult down the track! 🙂
I found some interesting thread on chores, personally I found it helpful, you might want to check it out:
http://jeaninallhonesty.blogspot.com/search/label/chores
Totally agreed!!! We need to train our kids to help out to do hsehold chores.
It has been a challenge for me to get my boys to tidy their toys after play!!! However, I will still insist they do it, I hope to instill in them to learn about responsibility and to grow up to become independence :o)
I think it’s sooo easy to get kids to help around the house at this age – Tobias likes dusting & spraying the cleaning solution on the tables – but he only will do it for a little while & wants me to be doing it at the same time. But he does other stuff – tidying his toys, bringing his plates/cups into the kitchen after he is done eating etc…
i think the hard part comes when they are teenagers & you want them to help around the house – but we’ll cross that when we get to it ;p