Little Bitty Helpers
We have created a crazy-busy world for ourselves, wherein most of the time, we dismiss having our children help with everyday chores around the house and yard. But that dismissal comes at great costs to our children, unfortunately.
It's common sense that we don't want to raise self-centered children, but when our children are not required to partake in everyday chores, that's exactly what we are doing. What do you think happens to that child when they are required to do certain chores later on in life, whether it be on the job or living in a dorm or apartment with another? Immense resistance will arise in them wherein they will, most likely, become negative for having to do what they don't want to do.
What do you think happens to the child that did partake in everyday chores when they are required to do certain chores later on in life? They simply do them because doing them has already become a part of their everyday life.
Is the child that is raised without having to do everyday chores more likely to volunteer and help in their community, or will they consider their wants and needs first?
Children naturally want to help out, but just like the rest of us, not by way of demand. If they become little bitty helpers at an early age and are made to feel they are an integral part of the home, they will grow into natural adult helpers.
We should never keep ourselves so busy that that busy-ness is at the detriment of our children. We can't have our cake and eat it too. We need to slow down and make time and help direct our children properly - when the moment calls for it. Children are easily distracted and, as such, we need to make time to make sure any request we give them is followed through with. That takes a sacrifice of time on the parent's part, but isn't that why there was a choice to have children in the first place - to put their needs first before our own?
Things are pretty upside down right now, where it appears as if the children are now parenting the parents, demanding from their parents what they want instead of what they are asked to do.
Can you imagine those same demanding children in a classroom and being asked to do something by their teacher? Or, those same demanding children 10 years from now in a job being asked to do something they don't want to do by their boss?
When we take time as parents to truly "oversee" and govern our children properly, to make sure they attend to what has been asked of them, it is a kind of "preparation" for us as well in learning to attend to the moment at hand, wherein we are always being given guidance from a level of consciousness above us. That higher guidance parents us - meaning, it gives us not only what we need to attend to in the moment, but what to do or say as well that will help all involved.
When we practice distraction, being distracted in the moment, that is what our children learn. When we live a distracted life, it is impossible for us to be connected to that higher part of ourselves, which ultimately means our life is truly meaningless.
Photo by Yan Krukov from Pexels
