Lily asks me all day long how she can help me. Usually I translate her use of the word "help" to actually mean something she'll do first and then I'll have to redo. For example, yesterday we made a cake. I let her pour in the sugar. Usually she's a super sous chef, but yesterday she poured half the sugar all over the mixer and got it on the floor. I'm usually a little reluctant to let her help.
But lately I've been trying to repent of my ways and give in to her pleas. I think it's great she wants to help me. I think it's great she wants to work. And both of those are admirable traits to have so I shouldn't let my own hesitations keep her from becoming a helpful person (especially with another baby on the way).
So she has been assigned 2 new chores: window washing and dusting, both of which she rocks at. Yes, I assign her to wash 4 or 6 windows at a time and 1/3 of the window cleaner in the bottle will be gone and her microfiber cloth will be drenched, but you have to start somewhere, right?
Our house isn't huge. It's about 2,200 square feet, but it's enough for me to keep up with, especially since I've been potty training Skyler by day and painting the downstairs by night. Having an extra set of hands around the house has been fabulous. And hands that are helping and not destroying are always welcomed around here.
So if you see any dead birds who have kamikazed at our windows, you'll know who to blame. :)
4 comments:
I let kate help with the laundry. She's great at throwing the dirty laundry into the washer when sitting on the dryer, then helping me transfer it to the dryer. I'm still too afraid to let the little ones use cleaner itself, so I just get them a squirt bottle with water, and it seems to keep them happy. That way if they suck on the nozzle, I don't have to call poison control for the hundredth time.
Send Lily my way! I would love to take advantage of those helping hands...and the opportunity to get a few hugs in the bargain!
I had Andrew cleaning windows and as he worked his way around the room, he doused the bungee bird in it's cage as well. I dried it off and it seemed to be OK but we decided Lauren's bird should be the class pet for awhile. One day the teacher called and suggested I pick up the bird because it was acting funny. As we were driving home, with the bird on Lauren's lap, it dropped dead...just like in the cartoons...it swayed back and forth and then just dropped. Hmmmm. "Mommy. What's wrong with my bird?" "Well, we'll go home and ask Daddy." Windex poisoning takes a few weeks to kill birds.
First of all - great comment Aunt Karen.... Second of all, "helping" usually translates into more work for me.... No matter what the chore. But I will agree with you, that it's good for them. My girls love washing mirrors and Sam is the only one allowed to fold the wash cloths and hand towels. And I don't (usually) have to redo it. Way to be a good mom.
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