We have many quirky family sayings. Many Hands Make Light Work, just happens to be one of them. But, my husband and I mean those words and we LIVE it. Intentionally teaching our children, daily, to be positive contributing members to our family.
Being apart of a family is a gift, not a right. There are plenty of people walking around in the world who have no family. Sadly, there are even people choosing not to be apart of their own family's.
The more people residing within a family, the more work there is to be done. Children don't just magically learn to work or volunteer to do said work (for the most part). It's the responsibility of the PARENTS to teach children to work.
There's nothing like the topic of requiring children to work within a family to draw the proverbial line in the sand of parents. I am unapologetically on the side of children participating in the maintaining of the home.
Working within the home teaches children a multitude of character traits that they can take with them for their entire life. Some of which include: a hard work ethic, how to serve others, how to clean their own home, how to work with a purpose, how to work within a team, and on and on I could go.
From the time our children are old enough to walk they begin learning how to work. From simple responsibilities like taking the cloth napkins to the laundry room or helping tote the bedroom trash bags to the big trash. Little ones love to work and typically help with a cheerful spirit. If children are taught from a young age that working within the family should not be done begrudgingly, they're more likely to continue that positive attitude as they get older.
Our children's level of responsibilities increases as they mature. Each child matures at a different rate and we evaluate their abilities to do chores individually. Only parents can determine what their children can and cannot do. But, the following charts are what we currently have posted for each of our children's and what they're required to do.
We call 'chores' a different name and have since we began having children. I always felt like the word 'chores' denotes such a negative task and I wanted my children to see contributing to the needs of the family as a privilege not a burden. So, we call chores ~ "House Assignments".
Each day of the week my children have a specific task they're responsible to clean. This chart includes house assignments for each of our children ages 4 through 16. The one and three year old do odds and ends but they don't have a 'daily' job. They're mostly 'helpers'. And my 18 year old works crazy long hours so he no longer has a designated daily job.
Because I believe it is hugely important for children to know how to cook, each meal we rotate a Meal Helper. This person is responsible for being my assistant getting ingredients/utensils/dishes out to prepare the meal, setting the table, filling cups and making sure the proper condiments are available for the meal. My little ones love to help cook and are often in the kitchen helping too, but I like to have a big kid in the kitchen helping as well. I rotate the meal helper schedule monthly so all of the children can help on various days for experience in learning to prepare a variety of meals.
Every family has their own method for getting the laundry done. With a family of eleven creating dirty laundry, it can quickly take over. I'm NOT a fan of letting the laundry pile up. It's rarely not done at the end of each day. I have a system which has always worked to make sure we don't get behind on laundry. To help maintain the laundry, I rotate a laundry assistant. This person is responsible for making sure there's no laundry misplaced in the house, starting and moving the laundry, as well as helping to fold and put it away.
I realize the majority of families have older children do their own laundry, and well that system just wouldn't work for us for two main reasons. #1 To be frugal and diligent with our money, we only wash full loads of laundry. It would take at least a week for one child to accumulate enough laundry to equal a full load. Which leads me to reason #2 We are limited on space and I don't have the room for dirty clothes to be piled up everywhere (not to mention that's just nasty!). So for now all laundry is washed as a family unit.
Along with the responsibilities posted within these charts, each of our children are required to make their own beds, take all their clothes to the laundry room, and pick up after themselves.
Also we have daily meal clean up duties for each child. I should make a chart for these jobs too, but the kids seem to memorize these responsibilities fairly quickly. Typically when school is starting back I evaluate our kitchen clean up crews and make adjustments accordingly. Because we homeschool and enjoy three meals a day together as a family, our kitchen is cleaned thoroughly after each meal. The kitchen is the hub of our home and having a nasty kitchen just wouldn't work for us. Not to mention I really don't care for preparing a meal in a dirty kitchen.
In the event that anyone is curious about our kitchen clean up tasks they look a little like this:
(Each person is responsible for taking their own dishes to the sink)
(And each person uses the same cup all day, which is taken back to the counter after each meal)
We do not own a dishwasher ~ on purpose! GASP!!
Small dish washer: hand wash cups, silverware, cups, bowls, and plates, dry and put away
Large dish washer: hand wash pots, pans, crockpot, prep dishes, etc., dry and put away
Wiper down & put awayer (lol): clear littles tableware, put away condiments, place leftovers in container and in fridge/freezer and wipe down counters, table, chairs, and high chairs
Sweeper: sweep kitchen floor
There is no way my husband and I could physically do all the work required to maintain our home. Yes, we chose to allow the Lord to bless us with children (specifically a lot of them) and NO we did NOT have them to be our slaves. The amount of children we have does NOT dictate our beliefs in raising children to be positive contributing members of our family. Regardless if we had one or twenty-one children we are firm believers that children should be included in the daily tasks of running the home.
Working together as a family makes it fairly easy for us to get our daily house assignments completed quickly. I love a tidy house and since my husband and I have spent years teaching our children to help around the house, my older children also appreciate a clean home. I rarely have to tell my big kiddos to do their daily tasks and they often willingly do other need-to-be-done jobs around the house just to surprise their daddy and me.
When children are taught that maintaining a home isn't just Mom and Dad's job from a young age, it doesn't take much to keep your home in order as they get older. It's a gift and a blessing to get to work along side our children, training them in the way they should go. Even though we have much to do around our house to keep it clean, I can assure you there's no more truer words than "Many hands make light work".
With Love & Hope,
Jennifer
