Today is clean the house day. It is not necessarily the funniest day of the week, but it is necessary.
There are 7 people who live in my house, 5 of which are 10 years old and younger, so if we do not keep caught up on the chores then our life will be a mess.
My wife and I have two options:
- Do everything ourselves - which would be save some time in the short run, but is not a long-term sustainable strategy for our immediate life situation or the future lives of my children.
- Teach our children essential life skills - which takes more time during the initial training phase, but helps equip our children to be responsible members of our family (and later on to become responsible adults).
Essential Skills
The list below is not an exhaustive list of life skills that everyone should know, but at least it is a start.
1. Cooking
We live in an "eat out" culture, and it seems that many young people are not being taught how to prepare and cook food. We can even take this idea a step back and argue that almost no one knows how to harvest food (either by hunting or farming).
I appreciate ease and convenience, but I am afraid that we have removed ourselves (and our children) out of the cooking equation.
As parents, we need to help our children understand the importance of good food and good cooking methods. And think about all of the educational benefits for learning to cook:
- mastering fractions
- following directions
- developing healthy food preparation practices
- learning the importance of properly maintained tools (such as knives)
- learning how to care for others
- and the list goes on
Cooking helps our children understand the importance of life giving activities. It instills a sense of compassion and generosity into our children.
2. Cleaning
We live in a "it can wait till later" culture. We put off things that are uncomfortable and unappealing. Cleaning is definitely on my list of put off until later, but my family and I need to disciple ourselves to address this important life skill.
One of the greatest lessons my children have learned while cleaning the house is the opportunity to serve someone else, even when it is not fun.
Cleaning requires 100% of your attention, at least in our home. It is not worth going through the actions unless you do the actions correctly.
Cleaning helps our children understand the importance of life protecting activities. It instills a sense of humility, servanthood, and attention to detail into our children.
3. Managing Money
My children receive a monthly allowance. Their allowance is a tool I use to help them understand how to save, spend, and bless other people with money.
The previously mentioned chores (cooking and cleaning) are done in our home because we are members of the family, and we help each other and support each other. Their allowance is just a lesson - a very important lesson about using money wisely.
Say we go to the grocery store and one of the kiddos wants a candy bar, then they can use their spending money. Say one of the kids talks about wanting to buy a tablet, then they can continue to accumulate their savings until they can reach the goal. But there is always need around us, and we encourage our children to give a portion of their allowance to someone in need.
Managing money helps our children understand the importance of life sustaining activities. It instills a sense of responsibility, delayed gratification, and thinking of others into our children.
Conclusion
The children will raise today will be the future leaders of families, neighborhoods, communities, cities, and nations.
With parenting comes great responsibility and great reward. Let us know forget to take everyone opportunity to educate and teach our children, even in the simplest life skill. There is so much for us to teach and there is so much for them to learn!
#Steemmoms and #steemdads, we can do this!
Image Sources:
1- https://pixabay.com/en/woman-kitchen-man-everyday-life-1979272/
2- https://pixabay.com/en/cleaning-washing-cleanup-the-ilo-268126/
3 - https://pixabay.com/en/dollar-bank-note-money-finance-941246/
I would add one skill to list that I am glad my mother taught me... Sewing by hand. It came in handy sewing all my epaulets and insignias on my uniforms... Now it comes in handy sewing the crotches on pants :-)
@jasonbu, I should have put down sewing by hand. I guess I didn't because it was not a life skill that was taught to me. Isn't amazing how we emphasize the things that we were taught to value?
Many times I have been in need of someone with your sewing skills. I am blessed to know some wonderful people that replace buttons and sew up holes.
Excellent advice in your post, parents must take heed. As the song goes 'Teach your children well...' & importantly while they're young....& the saying 'can't teach an old dog new tricks is so true!
It is probably better to say, "It is hard to teach dog new tricks." I have learned some new things since becoming an adult. Looking back would have preferred to have learned them as a child.
I hope to guide my kids so that they can master some of these life skills early so that they can learn other skills later.
Oh my goodness! I just imagined 5 little ones cleaning. Put a huge smile on my face. 😂
@karencarrens, it is fun to watch. There are a couple of our little ones that still need a lot of assistance, but the 3 older kiddos are turning into a great cleaning crew. It is blessings when everyone starts to want to contribute to family life and serve others.
And then we all have more time for having fun together.
How are you doing?
Great parenting. I never learned to cook but I always watched my grandmother and now.....I'm a great cook and eat at home as much as I can. I like going out sometimes but I'm not into the 'eat out culture' either. I also love doing yard work and shoveling snow now....which I hated as a kid because I had to do it as a chore. You're doing the right things. Great post.
@josephmcconnell, some of us are blessed as adults to learn things that we were not taught as children. I am glad to hear that you enjoy to cook. Overall it is much healthier and a great way to show care for others.
Thanks for the comment and support!
Beautiful post and a great way to bring up your kids. Thanks for sharing
@omarkhodeir, thanks for the kind words. It is always a pleasure to share what I am learning!
thats a good word @sumatranate!
Thanks @breakthrough!
Great article. I love when my kids cook and clean for me!
@tlester, thanks for the comment. Teaching our kids to cook and clean definitely have both long-term and short-term benefits :)
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STOPWe are working on all of these with our children. When it comes to cleaning... some days are better than others. :-)