Helping Your Child Learn Responsibilities and Value In Working

In our house, I want my boys growing up learning that everyone within the home contributes.  They see mom and dad going to work and I explain to them that is what pays for our home, food, clothing and day to day living.  Within the home I want them to learn that we all can help our house run.  This involves chores that help mom and dad out and help out the whole family.  Chores are always assigned in an age appropriate manner and they do not get paid for chores because as a family we have responsibilities to help each other out.  Chores in our home involve the boys picking up their toys and other items, picking up their rooms, helping me carry groceries into the house, setting and clearing the table at dinner and other little tasks along the way.

Outside of chores, sometimes we have "jobs".  I also want my boys learning that if there are things they want to have, they have to learn how to save money and be able to buy them.  I want them to understand that you don't always get to have everything you want, that if you want something really badly you have to work for it, and that everything isn't always given to you.  Sometimes they get money from birthdays or other occasions that they can save and spend, while other times they can ask us for jobs to help them earn some money.  We save all of our soda cans, and the last few years it has become my oldest son's job to crush them.  He has learned that we will pay him a dollar or two for crushing them and that then he can save them up and take them with his dad to cash them in and earn money.

My youngest son who is 5 has really latched onto the concept of working to earn money and it has been really cute to watch.  Last spring he helped my husband with the deck he was building in our back yard.  He brought my husband the nails he needed and carried him bricks continuously and was excited to do it.  My husband was quite impressed with him and told me that he really worked hard to help.  That is when he decided to pay him $2 for helping him.  You would not believe how excited he was!  Now he loves to ask for "jobs" so that he can earn money.  I think it is so important for children to gradually start to learn how to work and what some responsibility involves to help them grow into responsible adults.

A week and a half ago, my husband had Good Friday off work and was eager to get some spring yard work done.  My youngest son also had the day off school and was excited to help his dad and wanted a job.  My husband got out our wagon and told him he could pick up all the pine cones that the tree in our front yard drops all over our cul de sac.  He was so excited to help out and proud of his work!  When I came out to take this picture, he said to me "Look mom, I'm helping make our home look more beautiful"!  It was really awesome to see him take pride in his work and want to do the job as best as he could.  He even walked across the cul de sac to pick up the pine cones on the other side.