How can chores be fun, huh??? Translated…
My husband and I are both youngest children of our families of origin, in growing up, everything in the house, naturally, didn’t land on either one of us, and, in this area, we’d, lacked the proper trainings. But, after I had my daughter, my husband started proclaiming how he’d wanted our young child to start doing the chores at a young age, believed, that it’ll help her acquire the needed skills she will use for later on in life, and it’d also trained her to become humbler toward things too. And so, since my daughter was three, I’d started involving her with my household chores, not work, but, “play” instead.
As I swept the floors, I’d given her a smaller broom, and she can dance with it, I’d not cared about the results of her sweeps at all; waited until she could control her force, then, I’d allowed her to sweep up the dusts into the dustpans, that way, she can accumulate her sense of achievement. Then, I’d, handed her a mop, and proclaimed to her energetically, “Let’s shine up the floors!”, to turn mopping the floors, into something that’s fun for her to do.
As I’d picked up and folded the laundry, we’d taken the clothes off of the hanging rods, and sniff the scent the sun left, then, I’d let her start classifying, into “Dad’s, Mom’s, and Mine” three stacks, then, taught her to separate the tops, the pants, the underwear, and the socks too. Taught her to fold again, and again, then, send them into the separate drawers they belonged in. I’d asked her intentionally, “Why don’t we need to fold daddy’s shirts and just hang it up instead?”, she’d thought a bit, then told me, “Daddy’s clothes are too big, it would get messy if we’d folded it”, I’d smiled, and, told her secretively, “It’s because mommy’s too lazy to have to iron them!”
But, when I’m cooking, I didn’t like my child running around in the kitchens, after all, there are, certain levels of danger to the stoves, the knives there. But when she’d turned four, she could no longer be held back by her own curiosities, and begged me, to let her in to this “forbidden zone”. After considering the safety measures, I’d assigned her to task of washing the rice. She’d put on her small apron, stepped on the small stool, filled up the basin with the faucet; I saw her small hands, rubbing on the rice, and she’d smiled dumbfoundedly to herself, “Feels so good! It’s so fun!”, I’d relaxed a bit, and, started smiling with her too.
And, other than that, anything watering the plants, setting the table, taking out the trash, or picking up her toys, every single household chore became, a fun kind of game. I can’t help but wondered, why do the adults often perceive household chores as burdens, instead of something fun? Perhaps, it’s how time-consuming they are, that it’d taken time away from our “businesses”. But, why wouldn’t household chores be one of our primary concerns? And, don’t these chores bring about a sense of order, and helped us adjust the paces in our lives too? Thinking on it this way, my daughter was the one, who’d helped put the FUN back into doing household chores, and, all of these moments we’d enjoyed together, are the most important of all matters!
starting the children at a young age, and they would be, more than likely to help you with the chores as they get older too! Not my photo…
So, this mother took from her own daughter’s perspectives, how much she’d enjoyed helping her mom in the household matters, and, this made the mother realized, that she could, see doing those grueling chores in a different manner too, that they can be, quite fun…