dishes done with a dose of cuteness!

Well, we hit a sweet milestone this week in the world of chores. 

I am a big believer in kid's contributing to the family home, learning responsibility and diligence whilst mastering tasks and skills that will be useful for life... otherwise known as 'chores'! But as any Mama can tell you, while we all dream of the day when their help is actually helping, in the little years it sure is a lot of extra time, effort, mess and required patience just to get them started on the sweet path you are hoping for!

I have to admit **I** struggle with this. The kids rise to your level of expectation, but I do find it hard to be consistent - to have regular chores for them that I help them to be accountable for in a regular fashion, making time for them to do it with or be supervised by me. Especially when I find it soooo much easier to just do it myself.... hey, I don't even like Mark in the kitchen when I am cooking, let alone anyone else - such as a flour-scattering-and-eating toddler, haha! So often I catch myself picking up and putting away a toy and in the midst of doing so, I realise -Hey - why am I doing this?! Where on earth is the child who left it conveniently here in the middle of the doorway? How can I expect them to learn to pick up after themselves if I keep doing it for them!? Yes, I as the parent need as much training and patience as the kids - or even more, haha!

But I do try to not take the easy path of just doing it myself and keep my eye on the prize because I am really committed to equipping my children for life - the household getting some assistance is just a sweet bonus! I work towards the goals of instilling characteristics of responsibility, conscientiousness and diligence, aiming to raise hard working, capable children who are aware of what it takes to keep a home running and are willing to pitch in. Slowly and steadily, we are getting there. The kids really do a great job - though we work through phases of them being less than keen - and are so much more capable than I really give them credit for. 

One such moment of seeing how capable they are came when we reached a milestone of realising Lily can now un-stack and then re-stack the entire dishwasher herself!!! And she does so very proudly, cheerfully, thoroughly and capably. Even adorably (without me saying anything) grabbing a tea-towel and drying off any still-damp plastics before putting them away. 

Industriously drying the plastics

I had kind of put aside any thoughts of their contribution actually being truly 'helpful' for a good while yet... focusing rather on consistency and skill-building and patience on my part! So it was a shock to realise I can stand in the kitchen and prepare dinner while my darling just-turned-four year old cheerfully un-stacked and re-stacked the dishwasher. It was so fun being able to just chat and laugh with her while she did it without assistance and to realise suddenly that was a whole task I was also being saved from having to do - score!!!  

She was so impressed with the amount of teaspoons she
decided to count them all!

So proud of my girl and these days am just continually marveling at how grown up she is getting. I'm so thankful for her happy heart and helping hands!