One of the things I think is an important part of motherhood is teaching your children the skills they will need to be independent, well-adjusted, functional adults one day. You know, little things like how to do laundry and basic cooking skills. My daughter is only just shy of 8 and my son is 5 but you can never start too early with these things – especially since they still think this stuff is fun.
(And if I get a little cheap domestic help during the course of their training, who can blame me? They are legal citizens and besides — I MADE them.)
I recently started paying my daughter to do a few simple things : make her bed in the morning, put her dirty clothes in the hamper and put her shoes away. Some may call the allowance she earns a bribe, but I prefer to think of it as part two of the life lesson – money management. With the pittance she makes she’s getting a bonus lesson of delayed gratification in the process.
She should be thanking me for all this wisdom.
My son has more of an affinity for the kitchen. I think it’s all the buttons and knobs and potential for noise. What is it about men and gadgets? Even at his tender age, he’s mastered the microwave and likes to turn the knob on the food processor (with proper supervision of course!).
One lesson that has been difficult for the little man to grasp is that he doesn’t actually need to take a new cup every time he wants a drink of water. I’ve tried to explain to him that he can simply keep the same cup and use it again and he looks at me in puzzlement and says, “huh?” Maybe if I told him he could store it in the microwave between uses it would sink in better?
Neither one of them can seem to remember to flush the toilet consistently either, but I digress…
The other lesson my son found a bit above his head was making ice. What is it about ice that confounds so many people? It’s a simple recipe : fill tray with water and put in freezer. I’m going to keep working on that one though. Honestly, how many of you out there wish your mother-in-law had driven that (or any of these) lesson(s) home?
Stop by over the weekend and say hello to fellow author Candace Sams, here with an excerpt of her book Satyr. I’m going to sneak away on Saturday to embark on my summer “vacation” (truly, I won’t get any rest until school starts again!), but never fear! I’ll be popping in from time to time and the Friday Features will continue all summer.
Have a wonderful weekend!
When mine had to do the dishes they quit taking a new glass everytime they wanted a drink. We also used plastic glasses with their name marked on it with magic marker. That helped a lot…
by anny cook July 11th, 2008 at 2:15 pmI live for the day when they are tall enough to take over dish duty!
by Jenyfer July 11th, 2008 at 2:44 pmWe tried the ‘cup for the day’ bit with the kids. Moderately successful. I still have that set of 4 different colored Tupperware tumblers.
It didn’t stick, though. I visit my daughter and there are glasses in every room. And when I try to follow my own ‘rule’ at my daughter-in-law’s house, she keeps picking up my glass and putting it in the dishwasher.
I had my kids cooking as soon as possible. I’d put milk in a small pitcher and they could pour it on their own cereal. Microwaves are fantastic. We didn’t have those when I was growing up.
And, although they might not be good about drinking glasses, all 3 turned out to be very good cooks.
by Terry Odell July 11th, 2008 at 4:24 pm