Self-Devpt. Nuggets™

Proper upbringing of children across the world’s societies generally involves teaching them to uphold good values like truth, honesty and integrity. It also involves telling them the importance of putting family first, as well as being comfortable doing housekeeping chores.

Yes. You read that last part right: It is my experience based opinion that one of the wisest things you can do is to get your kids familiar with doing housekeeping activities.

I benefitted tremendously from that kind of home training, so I know it works.

What’s more, my eldest child who clocks 14 years in a few months also knows because I told him.

He is followed by 4 siblings : 2 boys aged eleven and nine, as well as 2 girls aged six and three respectively. They are all daily coached (the eldest three especially) by their mother and myself, whenever the opportunity arises, to carryout a wide variety of housekeeping chores.

Examples of what they are taught include, but are not limited to: washing their own clothes, sweeping the floor, cutting grass in the garden, fetching water from deep wells, even cooking.

Apart from empowering both male and female kids to be able to competently manage their own homes when they start living alone, such training will also prepare them to care for you, as their parent, in your later years, if/when the need to do so arises.

For the Sake of a Child’s Proper Upbringing, Hired Helpers Must Be Discouraged from Being At Her Beck and Call

We’ve seen it happen many times. The over indulged child whose parents raised to believe the world owes her a life of comfort and ease.

So she goes through life barking orders at hired hands who ordinarily are sometimes old enough to be her parents.

If by the time she leaves her parents’ home, her mentality remains the same, but she cannot find the means to sustain her priviledged lifestyle, she would end up resenting having to accept the sobering reality that life will not be a bed of roses.

It is at this point that frail minded kids sometimes derail into reckless living.

In contrast, kids who have been routinely tasked with character forming and skill building housekeeping chores are often likely to be able to dig deep when faced with a similar situation, till they achieve the goals they want.

The above often happens because the very act of regularly doing house work instills discipline, mental stamina, and a strong sense of responsibility in kids. That’s why I say it is potentially character forming.

When kids who have been raised that way have their own kids, they often ensure the latter get training similar to what they were given as kids.

Well Trained Kids Will Care for You In Your Later Years

Growing old can be a challenging experience for many adults, especially for those who led active lifestyles throughout the period of their youth.

For them, spending time sitting around doing little or nothing will rarely be an acceptable option. People like that may rebuff attempts to treat them like fragile or delicate beings. Not even when their own offspring make the offer.

I know one soon-to-be-eighty year old man who behaves exactly as described above

But his now grown up kids, being well trained, understand him and wisely avoid making offers he will reject. Instead when visiting, they focus on getting other chores or tasks done for him.

I happen to be one of them.

When we were younger and still living with him, he would sometimes send us out to help relatives and neighbours with various tasks and chores.

This happened due to the latter not having kids. Or in some cases their kids had not been taught to do such work.

Those experiences helped us appreciate the great value of the training and discipline he (and our mother) had instilled in us.

The above is why I believe the least I can do is to give my own kids similar training.

I suggest you make out time to do the same thing for your kids. It’s a good way to boost their chances of success in the real world.

If we really love them, deciding to do this will be easy.

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