Parenting: Don’t Look Down on Daily Chores!
Don’t look down on daily chores and habits (esp. for our children).
Put shoes back onto shoe shelves vs. Leave shoes wherever they wish
Wipe clean any spills vs. Ignore spills (assuming someone else will clean it up anyway)
Involved in house chores (tidying up own bed, washing dishes, preparing for meals, etc.)
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Too often parents assume: kids should only worry about ‘big things’, like:
– Kids should just focus on doing well at school.
– If they leave wet towels/dirty socks on the floor, well … we have the helper to pick them up. It’s OK lah.
– If they lose their belongings and they tend to NOT seriously search and be responsible for losing things, … well it’s an accident, isn’t it? No big deal. We’ll just buy new ones later.
…
The thing is, daily habits MATTER because they build characters.
Patience. Diligence. Perseverance. Proactiveness. Etc.
…
Kids will grow up and become adults.
They’ll become someone’s husband or wife, perhaps.
They will be someone’s friend/colleague.
The question is:
What kind of a husband/wife/colleague/member of the society will they be?
Lazy? Patient? Loving? Responsible? Ignorant? Pampered? Proactively helping others?
Such qualities need years of training, and training starts from our very home, since they’re young.
Yep.
From doing small, daily chores at home, too.
Food for thought.
PS: Such training requires consistency, patience, and repetition.
Won’t be easy on the parents, but by God’s grace it is possible.
After all, it is He who entrusted these little ones into our imperfect hands.
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(Inspired by today’s seminar by Vik. Sari)
