Читать книгу A Spoonful of Sugar - Liz Fraser - Страница 25

The housework is not part of a child’s life at all.

They should be free to play while they can.

All of this surprises me so much that even I am silenced for a few moments. It dawns on me that maybe I’ve been wrong all this time to try and get my kids to help with the washing up, to fold away their clothes and to scrub the kitchen floor till I can see my face in it. (OK, not that last one. Jeeez, you were calling the police weren’t you?)

So maybe Granny is right, and that the concerns many of we parents have to try and instil a ‘work ethic’ in our children, to make sure they ‘chip in’, pull their weight, stop taking us for granted and jolly well pull their finger out on the home front is entirely counterproductive.

Maybe letting kids be kids, and simply raising them to do things for others because they instinctively understand and feel it’s the right thing to do, rather than insisting they make their bed and put away their own clothes aged five, is a better way to go.

Granny and her sister were allowed to play. They were children, and they had freedom, and time and opportunities to play in a way kids today can only dream of.

While this does sound fantastically idyllic, and something we should all strive to provide for our kids today, I do have to disagree a little with Granny here. I think that, after the age of six or so kids should be asked to help out at home a little bit. Teaching kids to muck in and appreciate what we do for them by giving them some jobs to do themselves, not only makes them realise how much work there is to do around the house, and how much effort goes into looking after a family, but it also teaches them a lot of useful skills for later life. I wouldn’t know how to change a bed in two minutes flat if I hadn’t had to strip and make my own for years as a child! Nor would I be able to cook, or clean a bathroom properly, or iron a shirt well if I hadn’t watched my mother do it a million times, and then had a go myself.

But I do like the idea that children helping out at home was just done if it was seen to be necessary, without them being chivvied along every twenty minutes with a ‘do this’, ‘do that’ attitude, and it’s one I decided there and then to try and adopt a bit more for my own children. Helping out because you want to, because you respect the person you are helping, is a much better way to be going about it.

GRANNY’S TIPS

Childhood is a time for playing and learning through play, not doing household chores.

Children should respect their parents enough that they help out instinctively, not because they are told to.

–––– LIZ’S TIPS ––––

Some degree of helping out around the house is a good thing, as it teaches children to value what you do for them, and gives them the skills they’ll need one day to look after themselves.

Don’t start the ‘chores’ too young. A child of five doesn’t need to set the table, but one of nine can easily put her own clothes away!