The kids were in a helpful mood yesterday. They are very excited about the pile of logs now sitting in our driveway and I decided to start hacking away at it yesterday. Without any prompting on my part they came outside with me, put on their ear protection and started “helping” to stack the pieces that I cut off the logs. I was impressed.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot of room to work and most of the cutoffs are too heavy for them to move. But they tried, and I made sure to thank them for their efforts. After all, if I want to hold out any hope for their help with this stuff in the future I’d best make them think it’s fun and enjoyable now. The boy wanted to be doing the actual log cutting. Proof positive that there is a power-tool gene. I gently explained that he was still too small and young to operate a dangerous tool like the chain saw, but that some day I’d teach him how to use it. He was disappointed about the now, but made sure to confirm that in the future he’d be allowed. Always leave them wanting more.
After the boy went to school, the lass really surprised me. I decided to mow the lawn and she was right there helping to gas it up. She wanted to actually pour the gas herself. Hmmm. Since she is still learning to pour milk into her glass and I am trying not to create a toxic landfill, I opted to do the heavy lifting here. But she took it in stride and when I put the gas can back, she put the cap back on the gas tank. Nice.
Then, I asked her to clean up their toys that were in the yard so I wouldn’t be stopping every third step to move something. In the meantime, I started rolling up the hose, and she came right over and “helped” me pull it in and coil it up. Then the actual mowing began.
She grabbed onto the bar and “helped” push the mower around about a quarter of the lawn. No small feat for someone whose head doesn’t even clear the bar for the mower. This makes lawn mowing more difficult for me since I have to walk around her and manage the mower. Also, even though she is supposedly helping to push, the net effect is more like a drag, especially when cornering. So the going was slow. I stopped to empty the bag at one point. When I returned and placed the bag on, she insisted on pulling the rip cord. She couldn’t budge it, but not for lack of effort.
Then she finally decided she’d had enough, declaring to me “I’m done helping Dad, you can finish.” Gee, thanks. After this experience, I’m having visions of a time next year where I mention that I’m going to mow the lawn. The next thing I know, I hear the mower running and there she is doing her level best. Then I started wondering, if that were to happen, exactly what my reaction should. On the one hand, it would be nice to have someone else helping with some of those chores. On the other, she’ll only be 4 and operating a machine like the mower is probably not appropriate for her chore list. Yet.
Episodes like this make you hopeful that, on some level, they are learning things that will make them self-sufficient some day. That, on some level, they’re beginning to understand that life has more to it than playing with toys and watching TV. That there are responsibilities and duties to be tended too and those come before play. Maybe, just maybe, they’ll turn out alright after all.
But then they’ll start taunting each other and bickering with one another. Any you realize that, though you get little glimpses of possiblities, there is still a lot of work to do.
One reply on “Useful Little Engines”
Well – on the ‘log moving’ front, you might try devising a make shift satchel of sorts – perhaps out of a nylon or canvas type cloth shopping bag – that they can roll a log onto, and then utilize the handles to at least pull the log out of your way and over to a designated area for splitting/stacking .. it would certainly give them something useful to do – especially if they each had their own ‘sack’ – then, they could work independently, and it would certainly use all their little muscle groups! I’ll have to see if I can sew something up for you … 🙂