Colossians 3:23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men
This is the idea I like to put forward when I am encouraging my children to work. Unfortunately, I don’t always remember it myself.
My husband and I come from a long line of farmers/ranchers and entrepreneurs, this means lots of independent hardworking people. This brings a lot of characteristics that we also want to instill into our children.
Some people believe children should be children, there is plenty of time for chores and learning to work later in life.
Others believe that you should be teaching them to do chores from the very beginning. This tends to be where we fall in. Because we are entrepreneurs and self-employed our children are not only learning how to wash dishes and laundry and mow the yard, but they are also learning how to build, how to edit websites, how to work with electricity and plumbing.
Let them work when they want to…
When they are little, they are begging to go to work with daddy. They love getting out of the house and learning how to use power tools. As momma, this can make me nervous, but I trust their daddy.
As they reach their teens, they decide that the work isn’t so fun. It’s too much like work. We haven’t found the trick to making sure they don’t get sick of “constantly working”, if any of you have found the secret, please share
They have learned a work ethic
However, as our older boys have gone out and experienced working with others they have received high praise for their work ethic. We’ve discovered they would much rather work for someone other than mom and dad.
Our oldest started working at a local Dickey’s at the age of 16. The managers constantly praised his hard work and initiative. He is now in the Air Force and has actually thanked us for making him learn things. Most of the guys would come to him to iron, because he knew how. He was pursued for a special job because of the electrical knowledge he received working with dad.
The now 16-year-old is in his second year of a masonry vo-tech program as part of his high school. The teacher puts him in a leadership role, even though there are other boys in the class with seniority, because of his work ethic.
Last spring he was able to participate in the local home builders show. It wasn’t just his Masonry class that was there, the carpentry and horticulture classes also participated. Both teachers complimented him because he took the initiative to help them set up their displays and he was told that he did better work than some of their 3rd years. (The vo-tech is a 3-year program).
The work ethic and working knowledge come from working with dad (and grandpas).
Are you modeling a good work ethic?
One of the hardest parts of teaching our children is making sure our actions are teaching them the same thing as our words. That phrase “easier said than done” is all too true sometimes.
Even as adults, especially when we don’t like our boss or the work in front of us, it is so easy to forget who we are representing! If we allow others to know we are Christians (as we should be) but don’t act in a way that glorifies Him, we are doing our Lord an injustice.
You may not agree with the way we have chosen to raise our children. The only way to instill a good work ethic may not be to start your kids working (with age appropriate tasks) from the time they are walking.
Our second reason for being entrepreneurs and bringing our children along with us is to spend time with them. Being our own bosses means that, to an extent, we can create our schedules. We can bring our kids to work when it works for us. And sometimes when it doesn’t.
We have chosen to spend Saturdays helping dad finish a job so that we can be together as a family. So that it takes a few hours rather than all day. Then we can go play in the afternoon.
Recently we helped dad finish a job so that we could all go to a birthday party in the afternoon. Dad would have missed out on all the fun had he not had help.
How helpful were the 5-year-old and the 3-year-old at shoveling stone, not very. However, they had fun. They got to use shovels and were shown that when you work together the work gets done faster. They are learning about safety and to be aware of their surroundings. They are learning to help out when only one job is left, we all work as a team. We had a goal, and we met that goal.
I am one blessed momma!
What path have you chosen? Do your kids have chores? Are you teaching them a trade? Why or why not? Please be respectful of all, even if they have a different opinion than you. This space is for encouraging and uplifting.
Meet Melinda!
Melinda is a Christian, a wife, and a mom of 6. She has a blended family and has spent much time trying to learn how to "mom". She's still not perfect, but it makes her that much more grateful for God's grace and mercy in her life.